LAHORE, Jan 23: The commission constituted by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to look into the affairs of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has recommended its restructuring after dissolution of the present council.

The three-member commission, headed by Sindh High Court judge Justice Amir Hani Muslim, was constituted in August last year.

According to the commission report obtained by Dawn, certain amendments to the PMDC Ordinance 1962 to resolve the issue of recognition of private medical and dental colleges have also been proposed.

The report says: “The present council should be dissolved forthwith because one or two individuals are running it in complete violation of the law. A senior professor of repute should be nominated caretaker for an interim period of six months and be assisted by a six-member committee, comprising director general health (Islamabad), surgeon general army and one member each nominated by the provincial governments.

“The caretaker committee shall manage the affairs of the council till elections are held and it be constituted in terms of section 3 of the ordinance and the elections be conducted by a sessions judge, Islamabad.”

The commission proposes amendments to the ordinance that “no person shall run or establish any institution for imparting education in medicine or dentistry and neither shall any university grant affiliation to any such institution. Any such institution shall not be awarded affiliation unless it fulfils the conditions prescribed in the ordinance.

“The council shall decide the issue of recognition within four months from the date it receives an application from an institution. It shall furnish its recommendations to the federal government in this regard. If the federal government fails to decide the recommendations of the council within two months of the date of the receipt of the report, it would be deemed that such recommendations have been accepted.”

No institution, which is not recognised and has applied for recognition, shall be allowed to function unless the procedure provided in the ordinance followed by it and the federal government has notified such institution as recognised under the first or fifth schedule.

If the federal government receives a report from the council that an institution does not fulfill the prescribed conditions, it may withdraw the recognition, according to the report.

It further says whoever runs or establishes any institution for imparting education in medicine or dentistry which is not recognised under section 22-A or in respect of which recognition has been withdrawn under section 22-B, shall be guilty of an offence punishable with rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to seven years and not less than two years or a fine of Rs10 million, but shall not be less than Rs5 million or with both. The institute will also be liable to closure.

The commission observes: “It is very unfortunate that the PMDC has failed to frame regulations specifying the minimum uniform standards in order to qualify for recognition by any medical or dental institution. It has been noted that the PMDC, comprising the council of the members who are eminent doctors with vast experience on the teaching side, has ever thought of the criteria for minimum required standards of a professional college. The criterion provided by the council is vague and unspecific, it says.

“The commission, therefore, suggests that a senior most professor of repute each from federal government institutions, provinces and private hospitals, and the surgeon general of armed forces shall be appointed to form a board to frame the criteria and different regulations under section 33 (2) of the PMDC ordinance in order to promote medical/dental education on modern standards.”

It also recommends that the president and vice-president of the PMDC shall be elected by the council and they should be available full time in Islamabad. They shall be paid salary and perks on a par with the heads of the autonomous bodies. They should have higher postgraduate qualifications as laid by the PMDC and have 30 years of teaching and clinical experience.

The council, proposes the commission, should comprise 40 members. One member should be elected by the National Assembly amongst its members, one each nominated by the provincial governments, one from FATA nominated by its council, one from Northern Areas nominated by council, one nominated by Azad Kashmir government. The director general health and surgeon general army shall be ex-officio members, one member nominated by the Higher Education Commission, one member belonging to legal profession nominated by the chief justice of Pakistan, one member nominated by the science and technology ministry will also be part of the council.

Besides, it would have 20 members from different medical institutions — Punjab representing eight, Sindh (six), the NWFP (four) and Balochistan (two) — and one member from amongst the general practitioners from each province, including one from FATA, Northern Areas and Azad Kashmir.

The voter who can participate in the election of the member of the council must be at least an assistant professor of any recognised medical institution of the province, it says.

It is pertinent to mention that the commission was primarily assigned to investigate the allegations like the PMDC’s alleged recognition of the qualifications of private dental institutions without the backing of any law. The council is also charged that it is not sending reports of inspectors to the federal government and registering the qualifications of the medical practitioners graduating from medical and dental institutions whose qualifications are not approved under the law.

Its financial, administrative and academic practices are not covered under section 33(1) of the act. It recognises the qualifications granted by medical institutions outside Pakistan without complying with the requirements laid down under the sections 13 and 14 of the act.

Besides, the council is not observing minimum uniform standards while carrying out inspections and processing the cases for recognition of medical qualifications. It is also violating the section 3 of the act by not allowing some of its members who have been duly notified in the gazette.