KARACHI - A former member of Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), Dr Shershah Syed, has said that private medical college business has become the easiest way to mint money. "These institutions running without required faculty or training facilities are collecting millions of rupees from parents in the name of medical education but producing half-backed doctors", he told a news conference at Karachi Press Club. He said that "the magnitude of corruption and mismanagement is alarmingly high in the sector of private medical education in Pakistan and sharp-minded people, covertly backed by the PMDC, are looting parents and students." Dr Syed said that average annual fee and other expenses of a private medical college for MBBS are about Rs1 million. In this way parents have to pay at least Rs5m to 'buy' a doctor degree for their wards, but when these half-backed doctors go in job market they seldom find a place in respectable hospitals. He said that except for a few institutions, all private medical colleges are being run with part-time faculty, with no casualty department. He said that since big wigs are involved in this mega scandal no action is being taken against them. He said with the manipulation the owners of private medical colleges and vested groups in public sector medical institute, a group of five people are controlling PMDC and medical education in Pakistan. In last six months many medical and dental colleges were recognized and the number of their seats had been increased without fulfilling the basic requirements of PMDC. He said with the exception of a medical education in Pakistan and sharp-minded people, covertly backed by the PMDC, are looting parents and students." Dr Syed said that average annual fee and other expenses of a private medical college for MBBS are about Rs1 million. In this way parents have to pay at least Rs5m to 'buy' a doctor degree for their wards, but when these half-backed doctors go in job market they seldom find a place in respectable hospitals. He said that except for a few institutions, all private medical colleges are being run with part-time faculty, with no casualty department. He said that since big wigs are involved in this mega scandal no action is being taken against them. He said with the manipulation the owners of private medical colleges and vested groups in public sector medical institute, a group of five people are controlling PMDC and medical education in Pakistan. In last six months many medical and dental colleges were recognized and the number of their seats had been increased without fulfilling the basic requirements of PMDC. He said with the exception of a few, no medical college in public and private sector has enough faculty members and facilities. Some of the medical colleges are functional without attached hospitals. Dr Syed said majority of medical colleges had part time faculty, which was a unique phenomenon in Pakistan. Recently, all private medical colleges have increased their fee, besides charging a lot of money in the name of donations. Sadly, the PMDC is allowing them to charge these huge fees in the name of medical education. He said recently, the PMDC had announced election in different provinces, including Gilgit, FATA, Islamabad, but excluding Azad Jammu and Kashmir. He said it is interesting to note that in AJK we have medical colleges while there are no medical colleges in FATA and Gilgit-Baltistan. It is also fact that the PMDC has given a very short notice to the candidates to fill the forms. He said it seemed that vested interest group in the PMDC was organising this election to make sure their nominated candidates could get elected from FATA, Gilgit-Baltisitan and at the same time honest and hardworking doctors were deprived of their right of participating in the polls. He demanded that the PMDC should become an independent, autonomous and powerful body to monitor the medical education and training in Pakistan. All political parties should take a clear stand and commit they would make a constitutional amendment for making the PMDC an autonomous and powerful organization.
