Daily Times

At the time when whole Pakistan Medical and Council (PMDC) dissolved on directive of the Supreme Court, the acting registrar reshuffled many officials allegedly due to her personal interests.

According to a notification copy available with Daily Times, acting registrar Dr Sitara Hasan replaced four senior officials of the council in different sections.

The notification stated that Assistant Registrar Dr Asiya Zainab Khan was transferred from Registration section to PG section. “Dr Zainab will work as in-charge PG section under supervision of overall in-charge R/C and PG sections”, reads the order.

Assistant Registrar Dr Maria Sameer has been transferred from faculty section to registration section while Zille Hasnain FDO has been sent from verification section to council section. Similarly, stenotypist Muhammad Saqib Amjad was transferred from council section to verification cell and he also has been directed to continue performing additional duty of international desk previously assigned to him.

A senior official in the council said on the condition of anonymity that Dr Sitara Hasan made her favourite placements as she intended to make herself the decisions regarding registration and ruling of private medical colleges. “Actually, she intended to clear all hurdles in order to make some decisions on her own without any barrier”, he alleged.

Despite repeated calls and messages, Dr Sitara Hasan did not respond to comment over the issue.

Spokesperson of the PMDC Hina Shokat said that registrar has authority to make any kind of transfer or posting.”The registrar can post any employee in any section and (even) has authority to open the section or rename the existing section but shall need approval of the president for any posting to different station”, she quoted the rules. However, the spokesperson did not share any rules regarding authority of the acting registrar.

Last week, while heading a three judge bench of SC, CJ Saqib Nizar ordered to dissolve the 35-member PMDC. In compliance with apex court directions, the ministry of Federal Health constituted a nine-member provisional council. The first meeting of the council, as per sources, is scheduled to convene today (Friday).

Meanwhile, PMDC has taken strict action against the doctors having invalid PMDC registration and has decided to ensure the countrywide renewal and registration process of doctors within a month. PMDC took this action on the direction of Senate’s standing committee on health. It is to recall that apex court had rebuked PMDC over the alleged irregularities.

The council said in a press release that as per Pakistan Registration of Medical and Dental Practitioners Regulations 2008 (XXIV), “Practitioner means a medical practitioner or a dentist possessing any recognized medical or dental qualification whose name is maintained on the register of the council”.

It added that the council hereby directed all the doctors with invalid registrations to renew their registrations immediately in order to practice medicine.

The Acting registrar Dr Sitara Hassan was quoted saying that “as per part II of aforesaid regulation (9), only those names shall be retained on the register that have paid the dues of the Council and shall be considered to have valid registration.”

According to the PMDC Act 2012, in case of not registering, PM&DC shall initiate strict action in exercise of its powers conferred under the provided legal authority.

There are different punishments in this regard in the law such as two years imprisonment which could be extended along with fine.

The PMDC also decided that the fake doctor’ list also be updated on its official website.

Published in Daily Times, January 18^th 2019.