ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on National Health Services (NHS) on Thursday unanimously rejected the Pakistan Psychological Council Bill as both houses have already passed the Allied Health Professional Council Bill and counselling has been included in it.

Moreover, health ministry officials said that four MRI machines with fewer specifications will be procured as the budget for procurement was limited. The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Senator Dr Mohammad Humayun Mohmand at the Parliament House.

Furthermore, committee members addressed the matter relating to issuance of show cause notices to 22 doctors over practicing something that they had not specialised in, raised by Senator Dr Zarqa Suharwardi Taimur. A member of Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) informed the committee that PMC received a complaint from President House regarding an aesthetic practitioner but so far, PMC has examined eleven practitioners, four of whom were technicians and do not come in the ambit of PMC.

Dr Zarqa said that PMC did not take any action against the practitioner mentioned in the complaint by President House. Chairman of the committee directed the PMC to look into details of the matter and brief the committee about it in the next meeting.

However, while discussing the matter of procurement of MRI machines, the chairman inquired about why the ministry agreed to buy machines with less specifications.

“I only want the tax money of people of the country to be spent in a better way,” he said.

In response to this, additional secretary for Ministry of NHS Nabeel Ahmad Awan told committee members that MRI machines with advanced specifications are costly and buying four MRI machines with just Rs1.5 billion would be better than having nothing. Poly Clinic Hospital has been established since ages and still did not have an MRI machine, he added.

Discussing the matter of seats in medical colleges for students of erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), raised by Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan and Senator Anwarul Haq Kakar in the Senate sitting on Dec 22, Mr Kakar suggested that Higher Education Commission (HEC) should increase quota for students who belong to Balochistan, as most of the middle class families have to go through trouble to send their children to study in some of the best institutes of the country. They do have the right to get scholarships as they belong to Balochistan and have performed the best, he added.

HEC agreed to give 20 percent of the total 265 seats to students who belong to Balochistan and studied outside and 80pc to students who studied in Balochistan.

Senator Sardar Shafiq suggested that the committee could write to the Planning Commission to speed up the process of approving PC-1 of HEC Fata-Balochistan scholarship for the next few years so that students may not face problems. The committee directed the Planning Commission to deal with the matter with urgency.

The meeting was attended by Senator Sana Jamali, Senator Fawzia Arshad, Senator Sardar Mohammad Shafiq Tareen, Senator Khalida Ateeb, Senator Anwarul Haq, Dr Faisal Sultan and others.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2022