KARACHI, Feb 25: Amidst report that government is considering changes in the regulations of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council, the Pakistan Medical Association has come up with a suggestion to curtail the number of members in the council.

The PMA is of the view that efforts should be made to make the Council workable in a transparent manner.

In a set of recommendations sent to the government, the PMA said the PMDC should be a body which not only controls the standard of medical education and training in the country but also ensures that all medical institutes are working under its rules. The PMA mentioned that the National Licensing Board should be formed under the PMDC to award license for practicing medicine in the country.

It was suggested that there should be a 32-member council, including nominees from national assembly and senate of Pakistan and senior of the health departments of the four provinces, a Supreme Court judge nominated by the chief justice, the surgeon general of armed forces, director-general health of the federal government, elected members from faculty of public as well as private medical and dental colleges, elected members of registered medical and dental practitioners, members from the PMA and the CPSP.

The PMA also proposed for one elected member from universities having medical and dental faculties and awarding postgraduate medical degree, and four members, one from each province among the journalists of province nominated by the respective union of journalists in the PMDC.

It further stated that the right to contest for election and voting should be conferred upon the medical or dental colleges with at least 10 years of standing with 100 students in medical and 50 students in dental sections. The academic councils of the colleges should vote through secret ballot for elections to PMDC, it added.