Long process: PMDC to verify all foreign medical degrees

After Axact's fake degree scandal, the PMDC has decided to verify all foreign degrees obtained by doctors.

KARACHI:

After Axact's fake degree scandal, the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has decided to verify all degrees of doctors who obtained their degrees outside Pakistan.

According to officials privy to the matter, the PMDC will go through the process of verification itself. In the first phase, a list of foreign medical colleges and universities will be prepared.

After finalising the lists, the PMDC will contact Pakistan's embassies to verify the authenticity of the universities.

The official said that the decision was taken after Axact's fake degree scandal, where thousands of fake degrees were supplied. It is possible, officials say, that some of the doctors acquired such degrees from a fake university.

More than 100,000 doctors are registered with the PMDC and the process of verification will take time, once the list of foreign qualified is prepared.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 2^nd, 2015.