An Economist, a Lawyer and an Accountant Nominated in Medical and Dental Council along with CPSP, Surgeon General, 3 doctors and a general dentist.
ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of National Health Services notified that nine new members of the Medical and Dental Council (MDC) have been appointed and were recently summoned for their first meeting.
Special Assistant to Prime Minister on NHS, Dr Zafar Mirza, informed that the MDC would be one of the components of the newly formed Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC), which replaced the PMDC body.
Out of the nine members, seven will be nominated by the Prime Minister himself. The members as per the PMC Ordinance 2019 have been nominated from civil society, licensed medical and dental practitioners, Surgeon General of Pakistan, and from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan (CPSP).
A notification issued by the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) said, “In exercise of powers conferred under section 4(1) of the Pakistan Medical Commission Ordinance 2019, the Prime Minister is pleased to notify the members of the Medical and Dental Council as under:
Three members of civil society who shall be nominated by the Prime Minister of Pakistan include Roshaneh Zafar of the Kashf Foundation, Lahore, Muhammad Ali Raza, RKA Law, Islamabad, and Tariq Ahmed Khan, Partner Baker Tilly, Islamabad.
In the category of three members being licensed medical practitioners with at least 20 years of experience with outstanding merit and not serving as the Vice-Chancellor, Dean, Principal or Administrator or owner or shareholder of a medical or dental university, college, or hospital, the Prime Minister nominated Dr Rumina Hassan of the Aga Khan University, Dr Asif Loya of the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital, and Dr Arshad Taqi of the Hameed Latif Hospital.
In the category of one member being a licensed dentist with at least 20 years of experience with outstanding merit, the Prime Minister nominated Dr Anees Rehman from Islamabad.
The rest of the two nominees include the Surgeon General of Pakistan and the President of the CPSP.
The second body under PMC, the National Medical and Dental Academic Board, will have 19 members, including Chairman HEC; Vice President CPSP; 4 VCs/Deans of public medical university and 4 VCs/Deans of private medical college nominated by each provincial government; 1 VC/Dean of a private or public medical university nominated by the federal government; 3 members from clinical faculty, 2 from basic sciences faculty and 2 from dental faculty that will be nominated by the prime minister.
All major stakeholders have rejected the ordinance. The member selection has unanimously been termed unconstitutional. Healthcare associations are concerned about the selection of irrelevant personnel for the running of Pakistan’s primary regulatory body for medical and dental education, and the nation’s health and wellbeing. The commission’s authority is also being questioned, considering that the bigger chunk of the member will be nominated by the government/Prime Minister.
PMDC’s employees that have now been rendered unemployed were offered a ray of hope by Dr Mirza; he said: "Dissolved PMDC employees will be reconsidered on a priority basis after the fresh recruitment process starts.” Adding, all the employees of the now-dissolved PMDC following rules and procedures had been given six months' salaries and other financial benefits, which will be disbursed next week.
Dr Mirza said that employees from grade 01 to 04 would be certainly adjusted along with six months of their salary package.
He added that the advertisement would be made public soon to make the PMC functional.
