KARACHI, March 22: There are no medical universities in the United States and Europe. Pakistan, which does not have a proper medical college, is the only country in the region which has a medical university.

This observation was made by the general-secretary of the Pakistan Medical Association, Prof Syed Sher Shah, on Monday morning at an open forum organized by the Pakistan Islamic Medical Association as part of its 18th biennial convention.

Prof Shah severely criticized the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council, which, he said, had created a havoc in the field of medical education for the past 30 years.

"The academic council of the PMDC almost always submits to the whims and decisions of rulers. When former Sindh chief minister Jam Sadiq insisted that 500 students be given admission to medical colleges, the academic council did his bidding without so much as staging a protest," he said.

Receiving applause from the audience, he said: "We are not producing doctors. We are producing bona fide quacks. There is no public-sector medical college in the country which meets the standards of the PMDC. They are part-time medical colleges, with part-time teaching staff and teaching students only part time."

The PMA general-secretary said former president Gen Ziaul Haq had added Islamic studies and Pakistan studies to medical curriculum for no rhyme or reason. He added it would have been much better if the subject of Islamic medical ethics had been introduced instead.

The vice-chancellor of the newly-established Dow University of Health Sciences, Prof Masood Hameed Khan, shed light on the difference in the fee structure of public-sector medical colleges and universities and private-sector medical universities.

"In a private-sector medical college or university a student pays from Rs250,000 to Rs300,000 every year. But in a public-sector medical university he pays Rs14,000 on an annual basis. This shows that public-sector educational institutions need government support," he said.

Prof N. A. Jafri, former vice-chancellor of Ziauddin Medical University, said health facilities in Pakistan were not as good as they were in other South Asian countries.

"For instance, life expectancy in Pakistan is 61 per cent whereas in Iran, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka it is 70 per cent, 64 per cent, 61 per cent and 73 per cent, respectively," he explained.

He said that the change in nomenclature - from medical care to health care - signified a shift in paradigm. "Doctors are not only responsible for the well-being of individual patients, but they are also responsible for whole communities."

Prof Jafri emphasized the need for producing self-learners. "They should be able to find relevant bit of information, evaluate it critically and use it to solve the problems of their patients," he said.

He also stressed the need for introducing the concept of recertification. He added that the abilities of medical practitioners be checked on a regular basis to encourage them to keep themselves updated.

PMDC chairman Prof Hayat Zafar deplored that research had never figured high on the list of the government's priorities. "The PMDC attaches a great deal of importance to research.

We have made it mandatory for doctors seeking promotion to higher grades to first get their well-researched articles published in reputed journals. Similarly, we are also mindful of the quality of research journals," he said.

He added that the PMDC had asked the Pakistan Medical Research Council to publish the surveys it had carried out over the years in various areas of Pakistan. These surveys, he said, would enable a lot of professionals to carry out research.

He said that under the existing rules and regulations, medical syllabus be revised every three years. "But it is not possible to revise the syllabus every three years.

We have decided that the syllabus will be revised every five years. Actually the syllabus is now being revised after a lapse of 35 years," he said. The PIMA general-secretary, Prof Mohammad Tariq, also spoke.