KARACHI, Jan 9: The Pakistan Medical Association has once again called for a meaningful regulation of medical education and training and elimination of political influence, vested interest and blatant corruption from it.

Senior leaders of the association at a press conference on Monday alleged that the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council had become a puppet in the hands of its members, who came from the private sector and were mostly heads or owners of universities and colleges.

The council should be made a strong and autonomous observer and regulator of medical academicand professional affairs, they added.

Dr Mirza Ali Azhar, the PMA (central) secretary, said that merit and the rule of law was being continuously violated with impunity as far as the running of the PMDC, and establishment and recognition of medical education institutions were concerned.

He said that at a time when the PMA and other stakeholders were concerned over the promotion and standard of medical education in the country, students from abroad were being allowed to obtain admission to public sector medical colleges in contravention of the rules and long-observed criteria.A good number of students from Afghanistan had been considered for admission despite the fact that they did not appear in the proficiency test, he said, adding that this was done in the larger 'political interest' of the country to appease the government of the neighbouring country on the instructions of the country's chief executive, while the PMDC remain a silent spectator.

He also expressed concern over the PMDC's style of granting recognition to medical colleges in recent times and said that the activity was itself against the rule and regulations of the PMDC. The newly recognised medical collegeslocated in different parts of the country did not possess the required faculty for teaching and a 500-bed hospital for training their students, he claimed.

'Interestingly, one such medical college does not have a faculty and its own building so its students go to another public sector medical college to take their classes, which is a mockery of medical education and training of the doctors. What kind of doctors do we want to produce and for what purpose,' he questioned and remarked that blatant corruption had become the order of the day.

'In order to have an effective and powerful PMDC, there is aneed to ensure the change in the working of the council and making it answerable to the aspirations and needs of the country,' said Dr Idrees Adhi, the president of PMA, Karachi.

He said that the PMA, Karachi, had been raising its voice for a long time against alleged malpractices in the PMDC and demanding its total restructuring to see the representatives of the public sector teaching faculty in the council for the supremacy of a system based on assessment, evaluation and medical colleges with fulltime faculty as per the prescribed charter of the government.

He said that there had been atendency to give the name of a medical or health science 'university' to medical colleges which were yet to fulfil the requirements of a school.

He said that the situation in public sector medical colleges too was not up to the mark.

According to Dr Adhi, even public medical colleges in Karachi were short of faculty members and had been taking initiatives just to serve please certain bigwigs. 'I have been trying to form an association of teachers at my institution and motivating the colleagues to help get a true and effective representation of teachers in the university's syndicate and senate, but mycolleagues do not get the courage, he added.

Dr Qaisar Sajjad, another senior office-bearer, said that the PMDC should be made to function as a strong and autonomous body, which encouraged the rule of law and sought to raise the standard of medical education and its regulations.

Dr Qazi Wasiq, the new generalsecretary of PMA, Karachi, said that there was a dire need that political parties put the promotion of the health and education sectors and investment in it on the top of their election manifestoes, otherwise malpractices and vested interest groups would continue to flourish at every level.