Daily Times

The Pakistan Nursing Council (PNC) has decided to approach Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to investigate an alleged malpractice by its employee who tempered Council’s record to favor a nursing college for issuance of No-Objection Certificate (NOC).

According to the documents available with Daily Times, an officer, who was serving on deputation basis in the council, changed the record in the documents and files of the college that are to be presented in the Council’s meeting. The Council is the apex decision making body of the PNC that makes such decisions as per prescribed rules. As per practice, the agenda list is presented in the Council meeting and the sealed envelopes of the cases of respective colleges opened in the meeting in presence of Council’s designated members.

In a surprising move, the said deputationanist official altered the name of the Hyderabad Institute of Medical and Allied Sciences to Hyderabad College of Nursing. The documents stated that the forgery was done in the PNC’s covering letter which was attached with a complete file of the college that was to be presented in the Council meeting and also signed by PNC Registrar Fozia Mushtaq. Mushtaq, when contacted, denied speaking over the matter by claiming that all the PNC is working fairly and makes all decisions as per law.

The documents revealed that the record tempering was made smartly as the actual name was written on the top of the letter that to be signed by the Registrar while he put the desirous college in the substance of that letter and its file instead of actual college. “He done this so smartly as he knows the Registrar trusts him in official matters and would make it sign just looking on college name on the top the letter without reading rest letter or file,” said an official privy to the development, adding that usually the Registrar only signs such letter due to ample work load.

As per documents, the matter was disclosed to the authorities when the PNC received a hand-written application in which the owner of Hyderabad Institute of Medical and Allied Sciences leveled allegations of bribery of around Rs 3 million from the said official of the PNC.

Not only had this, according to the application, the official also demanded the grant of partnership in the institution in return for the “alleged help” in the matter. “He asked me that he has given around Rs 3 million to the PNC authorities in return of getting that approval of the college registration for NOC,” the application reads, adding that he did not mention the name of any authority who collected this money from him.

After this move the council started an internal inquiry against the accused and also forwarded the meter to the FIA in order to comprehensively probe the matter.

Established in 1948, the PNC is an autonomous regulatory body constituted under the Pakistan Nursing Council Act (1952, 1973) and empowered to register (license) Nurses, Midwives, Lady Health Visitors (LHVs) and Nursing Auxiliaries to practice in Pakistan. The council sets the curriculum for the education of nurses, midwives, LHVs and nursing auxiliaries. Besides this, it inspects educational institutions for approval based on established standards, provides registration (license) to practice, and maintains standards of education and practice.

Currently, according to the PNC statistics, there are 339 registered institutes offering nursing degrees across the country in which more than 17 thousand nurses are enrolled. So far, 12 scholars have completed PhD in nursing while 16 more scholars are doing PhD in different universities across the country.

The PNC has a registration of around 100,000 nurses who are working with different public sector hospitals in the country