Daily Times

KARACHI: Several doctors’ associations in Sindh have called upon Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to call a meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) at the earliest to resolve the issue of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC).

The Joint Action Committee of the Sindh Doctors Forum, People’s Doctors Forum and Sindh Doctors Welfare Association have demanded a permanent secretariat and resolution of all matters relating to the PMDC through the CCI at the earliest.

The National Assembly passed the PMDC (Amendment) Bill 2015 on March 16 and tabled it in the Senate on April 14 this year. The upper house of the parliament forwarded the bill to the Standing Committee on National Health Services, which approved the bill on April 18 and returned it to the Senate for final voting on it. The voting on the bill was scheduled to take place on April 22, but Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Senators Kareem Ahmed Khawaja and Aitzaz Ahsan suggested that the bill should be sent to the CCI keeping in view its importance. Consequently, the bill was referred to the CCI.

In the meantime, the ordinance through which the PMDC (Amendment) Bill 2015 was promulgated in August last year lapsed on April 25.

During the press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Wednesday, Joint Action Committee Convener Dr Sohail Sehto said the PMDC had been run through ordinances since its creation in 1962. Now when the bill has been referred to the CCI, he said, it should be moulded according to the constitution of the country.

“The prime minister should call the CCI meeting at the earliest. It is time the premier, the chief ministers of four provinces and CCI members should sit together and resolve the issue,” Sehto said. He said the PMDC was in crisis and Minister of State for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Saira Afzal Tarar was responsible for this crisis. “She ignored the constitution and presented the PMDC Bill to the parliament even after it was passed by the National Assembly. The Senate referred the bill to the CCI according to the law and the true spirit of the constitution,” he said.

He expressed the hope that the CCI and then a joint sitting of the National Assembly and Senate would pass the bill in accordance with the constitution. He said that credit would go to Senators Khawaja, Ahsan and Taj Haider for raising this issue.

Sindh Doctors Forum General Secretary Dr Suleman Otho said that every medical college should have a 500-bed hospital according to the bylaws of the PMDC. “There are 136 medical colleges in the country. How many of them have their own hospitals?” he asked. Now the time has come to regulate the health-related matters.

Sindh Doctors Welfare Association President Dr Ghulam Mujtaba Memon said the PMDC was being run on an ad hoc basis. He said that PMDC should be made a regulatory body in line with the spirit of the constitution.