Change is in the air at restored PMDC

Sources say rules introduced by PMC likely to be repealed

ISLAMABAD:

The winds of change have started blowing in the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) as the controversial rules introduced by the erstwhile Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) are likely to be amended.

Sources said the PMDC has initiated a review of the rules introduced by the PMC pertaining to the fee structure, registration of doctors and medical colleges as well as the recruitment of staff in medical colleges.

According to PMDC sources, the council has officially started working after its rehabilitation and has started reviewing the PMC rules keeping in view the problems being faced by the teachers as well as the students studying in the medical colleges.

The sources said all the members of the PMC were nominated by former prime minister Imran Khan using his discretionary powers without any merit or criteria.

They said during the PMC era, grading of all medical and dental colleges was carried out on the premise that it would eliminate corruption, but this plan met a failure because in this way the college which got higher grades started charging more fees and the colleges also started paying huge sums of money in terms of bribe to the PMC for getting higher grades.

After PMDC’s revival, the PMC’s council was dissolved and instead a seven-member council was formed whose members shall unanimously elect the PMDC president who will take decisions by consensus in which all the provinces will be represented.

The sources claimed that the entrance test through the external testing authority will be abolished and the old system will be restored in which the entrance test of medical and dental colleges will be conducted by the provinces through government universities.

According to the sources, the PMC had given a free hand to the medical colleges for charging arbitrary fees to the students due to which the students were having to pay huge sums of money to the colleges. They added that by abolishing the arbitrary tuition fee structure, a limit will be imposed on the tuition fees for all local and international students.

According to a former PMC member, the inspection of medical and dental colleges was entrusted to the Higher Education Commission (HEC) under Section 8 of the PMC Act, but after its restoration, the PMDC has started considering acting as the regulatory body to carry out inspection and monitoring of all medical and dental colleges, so that the quality of medical colleges can be checked.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 17^th, 2023.