LAHORE: College of Physicians & Surgeons Pakistan President Prof Dr Zafarullah Chaudhry continues to work as council member of the Pakistan Medical & Dental Council despite being “absent” from three consecutive meetings on two occasions.

The PMDC regulations clearly define protocols of meetings for the members of the Council.

The section 7 (3) of the PMDC Ordinance 2019 reads, “If a member fails to attend three consecutive meetings of the Council without any reason or remains out of Pakistan for continuous period exceeding one year, he shall cease to be the member of the Council.”

The federal government had already removed four council members of the PMDC, two of them on the directions of Prime Minister Imran Khan in July this month, an official told Dawn.

He said out of the four, two were denotified for questioning the registration of honorary degree of a highly influential council member. They had also opposed the inspection of medical and dental colleges without getting the pool of inspectors approved from the council.

According to the documents, Prof Zafarullah Chaudhry missed three consecutive sessions of the Council on two occasions. The 193rd, 194th and 195th sessions which he didn’t attend were held on March 25, April 20, and May 2 this year respectively. Similarly, he also failed to attend three consecutive sessions (197th, 198th and 199th) of the Council held on May 30, June 14 and July 1 this year.

Several issues of important nature were on the agenda of the meetings, the official said. He said most of the time Prof Zafarullah remained out of the country and some members of the Council felt that it was an inappropriate practice in the medical education regulatory body which deals with careers of thousands of medics working across Pakistan.

He said the PMDC top management was facing criticism for not proceeding against the “absent council member”.

PMDC President Prof Zafar Iqbal Bhutta said Prof Zafarullah had informed the council about his reasons for not attending meetings. He said according to his knowledge, he (Zafarullah) was abroad for the treatment of his health issues and confirmed that he didn’t attend three consecutive meetings on two occasions.

However, he said, the PMDC regulations allow a council member to continue to work in case he timely informs about the absence from the sessions of the council. “There is no need to proceed against him for being absent from the meetings,” the PMDC president said.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2019