THE Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), which had come into being through an ordinance and subsequently an act of parliament, had been responsible since 1962 for medical education as well as registration and training of doctors in the country. In 2019, a bill was tabled in parliament to replace it with Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) but it was rejected by the upper house. An ordinance was brought in which was bulldozed through a joint session of parliament without any consultation with the stakeholders; the community of medical practitioners.

The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) was often critical of the erstwhile PMDC for its ineffective role, asking for its restructuring as a democratic, transparent, independent body without political interference. The establishment of PMC has taken political interference to a new level, as it aims at giving complete liberty to private medical colleges to do whatever they want without any checks and balances.

PMA had been against the move from day one, and the worst of its fears have come true, with the private medical colleges having revised their fee structure independently. Some of them have raised the annual tuition fee with impunity, taking it beyond Rs1.5 million per annum.

Under the circumstances, the doors of medical education for poor and middle class families have been practically shut closed. Besides, the PMC has very little say in terms of faculty and quality of medical education imparted.

Also, the PMC has introduced an exit examination, the National Licensing Examination (NLE), for all young graduates seeking professional registration with the PMC to be able to function as ‘registered medical practitioner’.

This in itself is PMC’s way of expressing its lack of trust in the quality of medical education and examinations. Things are not looking good at all.

Dr Mirza Ali Azhar
PMA Sindh President
Karachi

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2020