ISLAMABAD: With coming in force of the new law, the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has dissolved and replaced with Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) with immediate effect.
“PMDC office has been closed since September 23,2020 and the staff is made to sit in one hall of the office to wait for further orders”, said an employee who is worried about his future.
A notice pasted on PMDC building reads as” The function of PMDC are temporally closed till further orders”.
PMDC has around 240 employees, most of them, regular and they are fighting for their future since coming in of the PTI government. They are extremely worried about their future.
PMDC is continuously under attack of the Pakistan Tehreek insaf (PTI) government since 2018. It issued an ordinance some six months back and introduced the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC), which was later challenged by the employee in the Islamabad High Court (IHC).
The court, after hearing the case for weeks, upheld the point of view of the employees and struck down the ordinance under which PMC was formed. This fight between the employees and federal government that continued for more than one year resulted in suspension of the council work.
It, not only damaged the education at medical institutions, which usually get day- to -day guidance of PMDC on many issues relating to regulation and other matters, but also resulted in creating problems for those students who had qualified and were required to get registered with PMDC for having house job at hospitals.
The court’s decision finally cleared the dust and its direction to PMDC for registration of the new graduates saved precious time of the new doctors. The government, whose policy of erasing of PMDC is yet to be understood to even professionals of medical sector, went to its maximum length to close down this important regulatory institution.
NEWSMAN spoke to different professionals of medical sectors to get their point of view on the closing down of PMDC by PTI government.
They have firm opinion that a strong lobby, which also enjoys blessing of the prime minister, was behind the PMDC closure.
“I am convinced the lobby within government was working for the interest of the private medical colleges whose administrations were not happy with PMDC as regulator and wanted its closure to get a free hand and keep minting money in the name of admission and tuition fee”, an expert of medical profession said.
PMDC had a strong monitoring and regulatory role to ensure that the students get quality medical education in Pakistan and it, at some level, did not fit in the agenda of private medical colleges.
The PMDC dissolution is another indication as to how mafia is controlling decision-making forums to PTI government.
