According to the students, the apex court served a contempt notice on the Council after its counsel remained absent from hearing. The apex court referred the matter back to the high court. PHOTO: FILE
The Council has refused to recognise their degrees they have acquired from seven medical universities in China.
The call came after representatives of the students presented their case before the Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat seeking solace for the agony they have been going through.
The council has asked them to appear in the National Examination Board (NEB) test to get certificate for practice.
The students said that at the time of admission they were assured by the Council that they will not have to appear in any exam for registration with the Council.
“The hectic procedure of appearing in the NEB test requires a minimum of one-and-a-half year time to get through,” said Naqash, a medical graduate.
According to a report presented before the Senate committee headed by its Chairperson Kalsoom Parveen, the PMDC gave recognition to seven Chinese medical universities after inspection of the institutes by a team during its visit to the country in 2009. The Council also advertised their names.
The PMDC through a notification on July 22, 2009 announced that the students graduating from the recognised Chinese institutes will be given registration on their arrival and will not be required to appear in any exams.
On April 3, 2011, the Council denotified the seven medical institutes. However, it was mentioned that all the students who had been enrolled before the date of de-notification, will not be required to appear in any exam to get the provisional registration for medical practitioner certificate.
But in October 2012, the PMDC issued another notification stating that all the medical students enrolled in medicals universities in China will have to appear in exam, no matter whether they took admissions after or before cancellation of their recognition.
The students also produced no-objection certificates (NOCs) before the panel they had obtained from the PMDC prior to getting admissions to the medical universities. In the NOC it has been mentioned that they will not be required to appear in any exam for their registration.
Documents were also presented before the panel showing that the PMDC had issued registration certificates to some of the graduates during February 2013 without asking them to appear in any exams.
The medical graduates said that they have already spent six years to acquire their medical degrees from China and it will take one more year if they appear in a test.
Senator Talha Mehmood observed that the case should be referred to the Federal Investigation Agency for probe as there was evidence that the PMDC issued registration certificates to some of the students on a “pick and choose basis”.
Legal battle
The students informed the panel about the legal battle they fought in the past.
In October 2013, Islamabad High Court (IHC) judge Shoukat Siddiqui gave relief to the students directing the PMDC to issue RMP certificates to them. The PMDC moved the Supreme Court against the IHC verdict.
According to the students, the apex court served a contempt notice on the Council after its counsel remained absent from hearing. The apex court referred the matter back to the high court.
According to the students, an adverse verdict was given by another IHC judge, as according to them, the judge had been part of the legal team of the Council before he was inducted into the judiciary.
The students further said in the IHC, the PMDC contended that the notification to recognise Chinese universities was issued by the then Council’s registrar in his personal capacity.
“Let’s not further frustrate the future of Pakistan,” Senator Mushahidullah Khan remarked.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 2nd, 2014.
COMMENTS (40)
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I just want to tell many students have hope now. but mostly they will lose hope and will choose wrong path . because their parents did alot for them now both parents and students themselves want to have their careers .but this kind of injustice and corruption and corruption people taking young generation to do bad things who lost everything and will care nothing about humanity. So that corrupt people and institutions must have to take notice on this
pm&dc should be dissolved bcz it is most corrupt dept
PMDC must be dissolved immediately and the foreign graduates must be registered immediately.
Everyone is aware of the fact that PM&DC is totally corrupt. Instead of appreciating the graduates PM&DC has the habit to discourage the students as much as they can. Some Substandard universities of Pakistan don't even have their associated hospitals and faculty but still PM&DC recognized them , on what basis ? PM&DC should be encountered by FIA. Thanks to senate members who understood the seriousness of our issue and took stand against this monopoly of PM&DC.
@anonymous PMDC playing a game only .if they are thinking Chinese students are not eligible they should not have to affiliate those universities and should not have to give us hope .we paid much money because of this affiliation .we are pakistani so we want our right.many students will disappointed so they might take wrong steps because of those people and all credit will go to PMDC
PMDC is wasting bright stars of future like Me. Anyhow if not today, Tomorrow PMDC will surely miss great Doctor but that time i will not look at PMDC......
PMDC is wasting the bright future of Pakistan and brights stars like Me. But anyhow, if not today, Tomorrow PMDC will miss gteat doctors....
@anonymous Then Why pmdc issue noc to them for registration without appearing in exam............why they give registration to their senoir with out exam .......
@anonymous: True we didnt qualified for pakistani medical colleges but pmdc did recognised our curriculum that means they did find our educations upto their standard. now turning from their words without any prior notice or investigation or inspection means either the got corrupted or couldn't adjust more of doctors. if the would have informed us at the right time we wouldn't have spent that much of a money in that institution and wouldn't have bragged about this ill pmdc.
If u don,t know about our matter than it is better for you to read about our case and than talk and as far action is concerned we don,t want that we just want rmp which is our right according to the noc they issued to us@Anonymous:
I really appreciate the news and what PMDC is doing totally injustice.They are playing with our futures by wasting our time...!
What pmdc is doing is one of foolish step I ever cab think that is playing with future of Pakistan well we want only justice
what PMDC doing is totally injustice. we hope for justice. all about our future
what PMDC doing is totally injustice. we hope for justice. all about our future We get admision only fr pmdc & paid heavy fees Frm media it is a good step.we r all so worried fr our future & pmdc thinks its a game.
No one willingly makes a stupid decision. The incentive to go to China and study medicine with the exemption of any sort of examination was itself granted by the PMDC. 5-6 million is not something that falls from the sky. I am sure many students would have opted for any other university which offered the same course at a cheaper cost had they known that they would have to face such consequences which were a direct result of an institution taking back its word. Even if you put the money aspect aside; what is more valuable and precious is the time. Going abroad is not an impulsive decision. It involves the consent of the respected families of each student. A lot of thought process and consultations are made before reaching a decision. Directly and indirectly this matter has affected around 500- 600 students and their families. I hope the matter is taken seriously.
I just wanna say one thing that in this country there's no justice or any judiciary system ...... I'm really ashamed to say this but that's a harsh reality. It's been almost 2 years now more than 100 students of Xi'an Jiaotong university fighting for their right against the so called mafia that we call PMDC,according to all rules and regulations and even PMDC own issued letters students who got admission after Sep 2011 have to sit in NEB EXAM for their RMP and the students before sep 2011 from Xi'an Jiaotong school of medicine were exempted from this as there own letter states the same story. It's totally injustice to our futures and even to our parents who have spent so much money on us just because this particular university was recoginsed by the PMDC and it was among the 7 universities on PMDC panel as a foreig institute.
all we want is justice from Media and our senators.... so its humble request to this newspaper that make this issue head note of newspaper.... and help us out .... regards
"Hope we get justice ………..
What PMDC doing is totally injustice,we are here for our right and to get justice and fighting for our own thing is our birth right no one can take it from us.i really appreciate the efforts of senators that they are helping us to get our right and thinking about the future of Pakistan...it's my humble request from all political leaders to help us as much as they can to get our RMPs as soon as possible to save our time from wasting...and once again what PMDC doing is totally injustice to students.....thanks
what PMDC doing is totally injustice. we hope for justice. all about our future
Pmdc is just wasting our time and playing game with future of students who had spent a lot of time and money to get their medical degree !!!!as a student we just want justice and our right....
We demand justice.Parliament did ammendement but they should have taken care of the students who were already studying in those recognised universities..we got admission on this base and paid 70-80 lakhs on this surity that we will get RMP widout sitting in any exam.but on arriving back to Pakistan pmdc is playing with us.
we hope for the justice. It's about our future. PMDC have already wasted our 1and half years. We hope for justice.
When we got admission were aware of recognition status and we also paid heavy fees but now PMDC is playing with our future its totally unfair .Hope we will get justice .
When we got admission we were aware of recognition status and now PMDC is playing with our future. We want justice and we will get justice InshaAllah .
We have spents at least 70 to 80 lac pakistani rupees in this university instead of 1500 -2000 $ in other universities and studied for 6 years instead of 5 years in other universities just and only because of pmdc issue because it takes 18 months to pass on first attempt.we were said by them that you can take admission in any of those 7 universities for recognised degree but what is our mistake that they did derecignise those universities in 2011 april? ? Completely unfair with all of us who belong to 2009 and 2010 batch from those seven universities.we condemn pmdc decision. And we will fight till end because it's our rights and it's good to stand strong for own rights....
That's the good news........... ,hope we get justice ...........
We have paid heavy fees at least 8000000 millions for six years. Students have to spend at least two more precious years of there life for neb exam they issued us NOCS before going to CHINA. what is fault of the students and parents who spend there precious time out of hometown and had paid alot of money for getting the course I as a STUDENT who suffer the same consequences and have destroyed the mind of alot of students who are studying in those seven universities from the last three to two years. I CONDEMN such act of PMDC and want justice and our right ....!!!!
Pmdc is playing a funny game with us,you are recognized, you are not recognized, o no problem you are save,o no you all have to appear in neb exam..we respect but pmdc not..some persons just doing Pmdc job due to their benefits... I appreciate that media choose a nice step...please continue it.. We are Foriegner students are depressed
I appreciate the news ..and senate should take some serious actions against pmdc, first they recognised the universities and issued NOCs to many of us, that's why we got admission over there and paid high fees over there
We have paid heavy fees at least 8000000 for six years and what we get in the end is just Excuses from PMDC THAT WE HAVE TO APPEAR IN EXAMS there are people who don't know medical knowledge yet they have opened clinics in rural areas and destroying people's health, and those who have knowledge should be suffering from such acts buy news books and spend at least two more years for neb exam they give us nocs before going to China, what is fault of the students and parents who spend there precious time out of hometown and had paid alot of money for getting the course I as a student condemn such act of PMDC and we want justice.
What PMDC doing is totally Injustice !
Hope we can get justice pmdc is playing with hundreds of students future we spend millions to complete our degree in those seven universities still they are not giving us rmp this is totally unfair we will fight till the end...
Pmdc is playing future of hundreds of students. By doing ths they making Mbbs of 9 years for students. They should behave rationally injustice is leading cause of terrorism in the world. What's the fault of students and there parents who studied there for 6 years and pay heavy fees around 700000 per anum.. Indeed they hav corruptions inside pmdc, it's the the pmdc who should be suffering from pmdc not students... This is not the rule at all you informing that univ are derecognised after studying for 4years.