KARACHI: At a meeting held on Saturday at PMA House, the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) members urged the federal government to implement the Islamabad High Court March 30 decision and restore the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) in letter and spirit.

The members during the meeting observed that the “federal government was manipulating and misleading the Supreme Court as it wanted to control the council by replacing some key officials with men of its choice”.

Citing media reports, the members referred to an application written by the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination to the court in which it requested that the president of the PMDC retired justice Shakirullah Jan should be replaced with retired justice Syed Zahid Hussain because he was physically incapacitated by his old age and was unavailable for work.

“While retired justice Shakirullah Jan had joined his office on April 8 and started working for the revival of the council. The court, however, rejected the ministry’s plea to replace the PMDC president and member,” stated a PMA press release.

This kind of application, the association said, was reflective of the ministry’s intention to control the council.

“We request the government to let the body work for the larger interest of the medical education and medical profession. We demand that the chief justice of Pakistan and the prime minister initiate an inquiry into the misleading statement of the health ministry,” it said.

“The PMA had always demanded an independent, autonomous, transparent and vibrant PMDC,” it added.

The meeting was attended by Dr S. M. Qaisar Sajjad, Dr Qazi M. Wasiq, Dr S. Tipu Sultan, Dr Abdul Ghafoor Shoro, Dr Shershah Syed, Dr Mirza Ali Azhar and Dr Hamid Manzoor.

Dr Ikram Ahmed Tunio, president of PMA Centre, from Larkana, Dr Salma Aslam Kundi, president-elect PMA centre from Abbottabad and Dr Ashraf Nizami, past president of PMA centre from Lahore participated in the meeting through a video link.

Published in Dawn, April 13th, 2020