Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Nursing Council was involved in the embezzlement of millions of rupees in the name of issuing membership cards, as the council had still not issued cards to the applicants despite receiving ‘urgent’ fee.

Pakistan Nursing Council has put at stake the future of male and female nurses, as they still await membership cards despite depositing urgent fees to PNC and even after visiting the office again and again. Moreover, there are hundreds of complaints against the misbehaviour of the PNC staff with its members.

Nawaz, a male nurse from Chitral, told this scribe that he visited the council’s office four times to get his membership card, but every time the staff simply slurred him by giving a false date. He said he still awaited the arrival of his membership card even after spending thousands of rupees on travelling from Chitral to Islamabad.

Farman, another victim from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, confirmed that he had deposited an urgent fee of Rs 2,500 for the card in May, but PNC was still reluctant in its issuance.

Another male nurse, Sajjad from Karachi, said that he visited the office at Islamabad thrice but PNC did not seem interested in issuing the cards. He said the PNC card was necessary to apply for a government job.

Another lady nurse who came from Lahore said due to the delaying tactics of PNC regarding issuance of membership cards, she was getting Rs 15,000 less salary per month as compared to her colleagues. She alleged that the council’s staff always misbehaved with the members who visited the office to get something what they paid for.

It is pertinent to mention that several male and female nurses also protested against the mistreatment and non-issuance the cards. They chanted slogans against PNC, after which the administration had to call the police. Pakistan Nursing Council Deputy Registrar Fauzia Mushtaq she said that the management has computerised the council’s system in May. “Now the entire system has become online. The reason behind delay in issuing cards was the automation of record. The council is issuing 100 cards daily but on the other hand was receives some 350 to 400 applications each working day. At present PNC has some 4,000 applications lying pending with it,” she clarified.

Mustaq said that now the council has stopped receiving urgent fees and it was taking only normal fees from the candidates .She said that the council recently has increased its staff and it was hoped that soon the pending cards would be dispatched to the members at their addresses.