Prescribed protocol: Candidate wants PMDC elections nullified

Applicant says the 133rd meeting of the council was illegal.

LAHORE:

A candidate for membership of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council has submitted an application with the Ministry of National Health Services Regulation and Coordination, requesting that the election for PMDC president and office bearers be declared null and void. The Young Doctors Association (YDA) Punjab has also briefed the ministry in this regard.

Dr Amir Hussain, a PMDC candidate from the Punjab, submitted that the 133rd meeting of the PMDC was illegal. “It is requested that the meeting’s proceedings be set aside and the election for the post of president and other office bearers be cancelled and declared null and void under the provisions of Section 4 (2) of PMDC Ordinance,” the application reads.

It states that only 32 members of the 75 incumbent council members had been notified. “Several irregularities have been pointed out and various courts have passed orders in this regard,” the application states. The election process is yet to be completed in some regions. Several medical professionals have been denied their democratic and legislative right to contest for PMDC president because the election conducted in the 133rd meeting was conducted by an incomplete council, the application states.

The council lacked representation from all regions of the country. It was dominated by one province. This practice is detrimental to national integrity and harmony, the application reads.

The quorum of the council meeting is decided under Section 8 (2) of the PMDC Ordinance 1962. It states that [one-third] members of the council will form a quorum, and the council’s acts will be decided by a majority of the members present and voting.

That means 25 members needed to be present in any meeting of the council. However, minutes of the 134th meeting of the PMD Council for Election of President revealed that only 24 notified members had participated in the meeting.

Of these, eight had participated via phone and Skype. Section 8 (2) of Ordinance states that “all the acts of the council shall be decided by a majority of the members present and voting”.  Therefore, members on phone and Skype could not form a quorum as they were not present, the application states.

The Council Regulations 2007 do not allow members to attend meetings vie phone or Skype. Thus only 16 members were present at the meeting. “Hence the quorum was not maintained and the meeting was conducted in violation of Section 8 (2) of the Ordinance and Council Regulations 2007... This meeting should be set aside,” the applicant states.

The application further states that minutes of the 134th meeting of the PMDC council, in which members were elected, stated that the prescribed procedure for the election of PMDC president, as defined under Section 26 of the PMDC Election Regulation 2012, had not been followed and thus the election had violated election regulations.

“The election of the president and office bearers was not included in the agenda for the meeting,” the application states, “the PMDC Regulations 2007 state that the registrar would issue a notice of the meeting with an agenda containing the business and details of all motions to be moved of which notice in writing has previously reached him and the names of the movers”.

“Prof Manzoor Hussain, interim Executive Committee member, is not eligible to take part in the meeting but he still attended it as was mentioned in the minutes of the meeting,” the application states.

A senior ministry official told The Express Tribune that the application had been submitted and the YDA had made a presentation to the ministry on the matter. “We will hear versions from other doctors’ associations before taking a final decision,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th, 2013.