“The Council aims to make Pakistan Medical and Dental (PMDC) one of the world’s best medical regulatory authority in the country,” said newly-elected PMDC President Prof Dr Tariq Bhutta on Tuesday.
Speaking at a press conference, he briefed about the council’s progress and its future plans. He said that the 17-member council was constituted under the Ordinance 2019 on the directions of the Ministry of Health (NHSR&C).
Dr Bhutta explained, “So far, the Council has held meetings every month and up till now four meetings in three months have been held for devising policies and prescribing minimum standards for all issues related to medical dental education/ profession.”
Besides, he claimed, that meetings were also scheduled for the Council Disciplinary Committee, Armed Forces Disciplinary Committee, Medical Education Committee, Standing Recognition Committee (Medical/ Dental), Standing Recognition Committee (Dental), Law and Regulatory Committee, Evaluation Committee, Finance and Audit Committee, Human Resource Committee, Journals Committee, Information Technology Systems Committee, International Coordination and Affiliation Committee, National Examination Board Committee.
The purpose of these Council Committees remained to cater to the pending matters and, thus, a cumulative 37 meetings had been held of the Council Committees in the past three months, Dr Bhutta maintained.
The president also briefed that the council was working for students’ relief as it had proceeded on a policy under which students would not be penalized due to failings or college violations.
“The pending cases of provisional licenses of 100 students of Federal Medical and Dental College and Avicenna Medical and Dental College of session 2013 -14 which were long awaited were issued immediately which helped these 100 doctors to start their house job and career,” he recalled.
Dr Bhutta went on claiming, “100 students of 2013-2014 and further sessions of Abbottabad International Medical College whose registration had been refused in the past (were) registered on an immediate basis and those who had graduated and granted degrees by the University are being granted their provisional licenses.”
He justified delays in the new admissions by saying that the admissions for Academic Year 2019 were unduly delayed due to the first-ever central induction program.
Due to which, the president continued, a final deadline of March 31 was set for all admitting universities, responsible for admissions by the central induction, to complete their admissions process, in the council’s first meeting.
The council was also said to have constituted the Admission Board with the mandate to directly supervise the completion of all remaining admissions, this year and onwards.
He noted that the PMDC Council had called all Admitting Universities to Islamabad with their entire admissions record to work in conjunction with the Admissions Board to finalize and conclude the admissions; strictly on merit.
The Council had prioritised this issue so that the academic year of the students could not be jeopardised and this task was completed on a war footing under the supervision of the PMDC Council and the Admissions Board.
The detailed lists of adjusted applicants were also displayed on PMDC Websites.
He further maintained that the Council had taken serious notice of the general delays caused in granting MBBS and BDS graduates their provisional licenses, without which they were unable to start their house jobs.
