ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) on Friday announced that it will digitalise the system for verification of doctors and medical students.

It made it clear that under a new law the Higher Education Commission (HEC) will ensure PMC’s standards in medical colleges.

“HEC will conduct inspections of medical and dental colleges and education standards will be set by the commission,” PMC President Dr Arshad Taqi told a press conference.

He said the PMC had taken a number of steps to improve its system as per international standards.

Accompanied by PMC Vice President Mohammad Ali Raza, he said after formation of the commission about four weeks ago it took a number of steps to improve its working, including clearing pending cases of good standing certificates and applications for verification of doctors.

Head of newly-created commission says he has taken several steps to improve its working

He said registration for students who wanted to sit the National Examination Board (NEB) Step-1 exam on Dec 1 had been processed and their admit cards prepared.

He said the new website of the commission was also made functional on an urgent basis.

The commission hired services of eight managers and 22 supporting staff to run the day-to-day affairs. He said the staff was hired for 90 days and till appointment of permanent employees.

He said an email - info@pmc.pakistan.gov.pk - had been made functional and all students and doctors requested to send their queries and applications on the address. These are being responded to on an immediate basis.

He said a 24-hour helpline and customer service facility had been organised and will be operational within a week to provide all students and doctors a toll-free number in order to have their queries answered, including update of status of their pending applications, if any.

Dr Taqi said the IT networking system had been enabled at the PMC to provide internet and connectivity while requirements for digitalisation of PMC was being processed and will be undertaken to enable students and doctors to process their applications online.

He said the process for new student registration and issuance of provisional licences to students had been overhauled and simplified doing away with unnecessary repetitive documentations previously demanded from students and verification of their being admitted to colleges or having graduated from universities being procured and verified directly from the relevant colleges and universities.

He said new forms for registration of fresh students and for grant of provisional licences were being sent to colleges and universities in the coming week and provided to students online.

He said students could submit the fee online at any NBP branch across the country rather than having to undertake the cumbersome process of preparing bank drafts etc. He said an online verification service from Nadra had been arranged to enable immediate verification of credentials by the commission in order to easing the burden on students and doctors who had to obtain these verifications themselves in the past.

This will enable the institutions to be affiliated with an HEC recognised university and corresponding registration with PMC for recording and tracking medical and dental students to ensure that PMC can efficiently issue licences when these students graduate.

PMC Vice President Ali Raza said the fee for MBBS and BDS programmes, for which admissions were underway, remained at a maximum of Rs950,000. He clarified that hostel charges were separate from the fee. The PMC will not allow anyone to charge more fee.Meanwhile, former employees of the defunct Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) staged a protest against the dissolution of the council and establishment of the PMC.

The protest was arranged on the call of PMDC Employees Movement, which also arranged a sit-in in front of the council’s headquarters to raise their voice against the dissolution of the commission.

During the press conference, the participants raised slogans outside the building.

When newsmen drew the PMC president’s attention towards the protest, he said he and his team were working on the task given by the government to improve the commission.

He said they had no time to pay attention to such protests.

Published in Dawn, November 23rd, 2019