The members of the Upper House of the Parliament on Friday expressed their resentment over the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC)’s lopsided criteria set pass house job license examination meted out for medical graduates of foreign universities.
Taking the floor on the matter of public importance during the fourth meeting of the 355th Senate session, Senator Taj Haider of Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarian (PPPP) apprised the forum that none of the foreign universities’ graduated MBBS students had passed the PMDC examination.
Senator Haider said it was a matter of public importance that the MBBS doctors graduated from foreign universities require a license from PMDC for house job for which the passing marks criterion set was 70 percent and no student managed to achieve it in the recent examination.
However, for students graduates from Pakistani universities and medical colleges the passing marks were 50%, he said, adding, “The matter should be sent to the Senate Committee on Health.” While commenting on the issue, Senator Humayun Mohmand of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) apprised the House that the matter was discussed earlier around 3-4 times in the committee.
The forum had directed the then newly restructured PMDC alongwith its Academic Council to look into the matter.
“As chairman committee, I directed to send the matter to privilege committee, as it is unjust to discriminate the MBBS graduates of foreign universities where many private medical colleges in Pakistan have lower standard than the foreign universities, and its graduates have been permitted 50% passing marks,” he said.
Senator Mohmand termed the issue as a violation of Article 25 of the Constitution that demanded to ensure equal opportunities to all at the same level.
He recommended that the PMDC should have a unified standard in this regard.
“During the farewell meeting of the Senate’s Health Committee, the PMDC said their academic council has kept this issue on its next meeting agenda,” he added.
Senator Sardar Muhammad Shafiq Tareen of Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP) said the PMDC had turned a deaf ear to the recommendations of the Committee and the House should give ruling on this issue to resolve the matter.
Senator Prof. Dr. Mehr Taj Roghani of PTI said the issue of young doctors was a serious problem as there was globally 50% passing marks criteria while the PMDC had set a 70% benchmark that was not achieved by a single foreign graduate of the country which was regrettable.
She also raised the issue of massive increase in drugs prices. Senator Roghani said there was a skyrocketing increase in drugs’ prices from paracetamol to many painkillers and lifesaving medicines.
She added that many advanced stage cancer patients who rely on painkillers and sedations were unable to by their critical medicines to get remedy from agony due to serious disease.
Senator Rubina Khalid of PPPP also mentioned that the test discussed at the forum was for getting house job license whereas there was a separate examination to get another license for clinical practice. She added that the prevailing examination criteria had deprived the foreign graduates of to even practice in the country which needed to be addressed properly.
Deputy Chairman Senate, Mirza Muhammad Afridi marked the ruling from the Houe of Senate to direct PMDC to give report to it on the matter of house job license examination and to the quarters concerned for irregular increase in the price of various drugs.
Senators Zeeshan Khanzada, Shahadat Awan, Molvi Faiz Mohammad, Saif Ullah Abro and Muhammad Tahir Bizinjo also addressed the forum on the matters of public importance.
Caretaker Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Murtaza Solangi also extended his gratitude to Chairman and Deputy Chairman Senate and the House members for supporting him despite many criticisms and unfavourable conditions.
The Senate session was adjourned to meet again Monday February 26th at 1500 hours.
