PMDC gets a week to present registration policy

IHC irked over absence of council’s lawyer

ISLAMABAD: The apex regulator and registrar for medical and dental education and practitioners in the country have been given a week to submit its policy on registering new colleges.

This was directed on Tuesday by a single-member bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), comprising Justice Miangul Hasan Aurangzeb while hearing a case about the registration of medical institutions in the country.

At the outset of the hearing, Justice Aurangzeb expressed his displeasure at the absence of Pakistan Medical and Dental Council’s (PMDC) counsel Sara Rubab.

PMDC told to inspect private medical colleges

He inquired why Rubab failed to attend the hearing, remarking that the case about registration of colleges were being easily resolved when the body had been dissolved.

But ever since the council had been restored, the court said that cases for registration of colleges were being delayed under different pretexts.

Further expressing disdain, the court stated that sometimes the council’s officials are absent from the hearings while at other times they are afraid of contracting the novel coronavirus (Covid-19).

PMDC registrar barred from assuming office

The court subsequently directed the PMDC to send a responsible official to the court at the next hearing.

Meanwhile, the PMDC submitted the record of its ad-hoc committee’s meeting which decided to inspect all those medical institutions which had been registered by the now-defunct Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC).

Published in The Express Tribune, June 3^rd, 2020.