MY friend’s son has recently graduated from a medical school in Karachi. He had obtained all of his previous education in the United States and had come to Pakistan in 2015 to study for a medical degree.

At the time of admission to medical college, the brochure as well as an advertisement by the erstwhile Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) had outlined the criteria having three possible routes to admission to an MBBS programme for foreign nationals. All of these are readily available online if you wish to research them yourself. They also prescribed a hefty tuition fee of $18,000.

This is where the story gets interesting. In October 2019, the president of Pakistan replaced the PMDC by approving the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) Ordinance, 2019, a decision which was greatly denounced by the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) and many other stakeholders.

The Ministry of National Health Services Regulation and Coordination and the president stood firm, saying the move was progressive and was designed to improve the system, pledging to supervise and oversee the admission processes, and to ensure proper completion of ongoing admissions.

This, however, did not prove to be true. After graduating from medical schools across the country, the students, who had gained admission to the MBBS programmes through prior methods determined by the PMDC, found themselves unregistered as medical students, unable to obtain provisional licenses, medical licences, and ineligible to pursue higher education in their respective fields of choice. For my friend and his son, this also means $90,000 down the drain.

The existing PMC admission criteria are different from the former guidelines, and the commission refuses to acknowledge any MBBS candidate who had applied before the new criteria had become law. These must be the first laws in modern history that not only apply to the date of conception and onwards, but also to the past.

This means all pending student registrations even related to the time when the PMC did not exist must apply using the new criteria, regardless of just about anything else.

The PMC executives have left hardworking doctors and medical students in a quandary, not knowing where they stand, and if they stand at all, in relation to their professional careers as well as financial and intellectual investments.

The whole mess has only forced the victims to find an under-the-table route to make the relevant officials look the other way as they acquire forged documents, counterfeit registrations and fraudulent marks sheet to meet the new criteria, which, and I cannot say this enough, did not even exist when they had applied for registration.

This is pure and simple extortion. Making things worse is the fact that nobody at PMC answers phone calls, emails or postal correspondence. Some people say the PMC has not even acknowledged the existence of such MBBS degree holders who had applied in the 2014-19 session. There are doctors already doing house jobs, but, as per PMC guidelines, they do not qualify even for first year MBBS admission. This is as hilarious as it is tragic.

If the government truly wants to initiate any kind of reforms, especially those related to facilitation of overseas Pakistanis, a detailed and impartial inquiry into the affairs of PMC should be the starting point. Its practices and procedures are seriously flawed and mala fide.

Those running the show at the PMC should be made accountable for the injustice done, and being done, to students who rightfully deserve to have their registration, have their right to practise in Pakistan, and have their right to pursue higher education either abroad or in Pakistan.

Muhammad Anees Kamran
Vehari

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2022