PMDC conducted an inquiry into allegations against the Council’s ex-registrar and recommended that his case be forwarded to the NAB. PHOTO: FILE
The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) have yet to start joint site inspections of private medical colleges. The NAB blames the medical council for the delay.
The Council and the Bureau were to start with the inspections on June 10. According to the NAB, the “quantum leap” in the number of private medical colleges across Pakistan from 36 to 78 in the last five years has necessitated the scrutiny.
On May 29, the NAB Headquarters had written to all regional offices, and copied the PMDC officials, directing that an official each from the two bodies should start inspecting private medical colleges by June 10.
The letter noted that the PMDC administrator had been requested on April 9 to form and notify an inspection committee – that should also include representatives from the NAB – by April 12… “but till date he [has] failed to notify the committee”. The Bureau’s letter says: “Reportedly inspections of [some] medical colleges have been conducted by the PMDC without involving the NAB… [The] PMDC [administrator] is deliberately avoiding involving the NAB [in] inspections for reasons best known to him.”
The Bureau and the Council are not on the best of terms since cases of alleged malpractices and corruption at the PMDC are being investigated by the NAB as well as the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
Documents available with The Express Tribune show that the executive committee of the PMDC conducted an inquiry into allegations against the Council’s ex-registrar and recommended that his case be forwarded to the NAB for further investigation. The committee, in its report, has mentioned 36 charges which it had investigated.
An official of the PMDC, who requested anonymity, told The Express Tribune paper no ‘real action’ had been taken against the ex-registrar. “He is still withdrawing his salary. The private colleges, which are suspected of getting registration through forgery, continue to play with the future of hundreds of medical students.”
The FIA has also requested the interior ministry to place the ex-registrar’s name on the Exit Control List (ECL), stating that a charge sheet has been issued against the accused.
An official of the University of Health Sciences, the body responsible for conducting entrance test for medical colleges in the Punjab, said that cases against a number of private medical colleges were pending for several years. “Now that the inquiry is in the NAB’s hands and site inspections have been ordered, there shouldn’t be any delay.”
Dr Shabbir Chaudhry, who looks after the legal affairs of the Young Doctors Association (YDA), said, “The PMDC has become Private Medical and Dental College during the last five years.” The YDA, he said, had written to to the Council several times, bringing malpractices to its attention. The council has yet to take action against “those who earned billions after registering sub-standard private medical colleges”, he said.
The PMDC Administrator, Dr Raja Amjad Mahmood, said the ex-registrar had been suspended. The rules allowed him to withdraw a salary, Mahmood said. Responding to a question about the delay in starting inspections he said that the Council had provided the relevant record to the NAB. But he declined comment on why site inspections hadn’t started.
NAB spokesman Ramazan Sajid told The Express Tribune that he needed to get a response from the officials concerned in writing before he could comment on the matter. An official request sent to him through email hasn’t elicited a reply.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 24th, 2013.
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