ISLAMABAD, Jan 19: The health ministry has asked the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) to consider giving representation to the recognized private medical colleges with a view to streamlining the medical institutions and improving their quality, an official source told Dawn.

The 53-member council comprises principals and vice- chancellors of different public medical colleges and universities, senior officials of the health ministry and representative of the National Assembly. However, it has been functioning without holding an election - an act contrary to the PMDC rules, the source claimed.

The council is a regulatory authority of the health professionals and without its permission, no institution or professional is allowed to function or perform in the country.

The private medical colleges and universities, the source said, had long been seeking representation in the council for at least those private institutions that had been recognized by the council.

In the absence of any representation in the council, the source said, the private colleges were claiming that their interests were not being safeguarded. If the private medical colleges are also given representation, the council would emerge as a strong, effective and truly representative neutral body to monitor the performance of all the medical colleges and universities, the source said.

After the death of PMDC President Zafar Hayat, Vice- President Prof Abdullah Jan Jaffar has been asked to take over and resolve the issue by calling an urgent meeting of all the stakeholders.

He has also been asked to either grant full recognition to the private medical colleges or do away with the practice of granting them provisional recognition for six months or a year. The council rules are also silent about granting provisional recognition to the private medical colleges, the source further said.

The source said the PMDC charged Rs25,000 each for inspecting every faculty of the medical colleges after which it granted provisional recognition for a specific period to remove the discrepancies. He said the public sector medical colleges sometimes also faced similar discrepancies but these were recognized by the council.