Daily Times

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has directed universities and Degree Awarding Institutes (DAIs) to immediately stop the Bachelor of Eastern Medicine and Sugary (BEMS) program as it has been causing ambiguity among the concerned academic sections.

The commission also expressed grave concerns over the issue by stating that those who are “misusing” the core purpose of the degree should stop offering BEMS on immediate basis. “If any higher education institution fails to abide by said advisory and directives, BEMS degrees would not be considered as “invalid” and would not be “verified” by the HEC at any cost,” the HEC warned.

According to a letter issued by the curriculum division of the HEC, the competent authorities took this decision to eliminate the indistinctness situation which, it added, may also lead to false presumption and confusion of students, their parents, and employer.

“Due to this the HEC has decided to revise the program as Bachelor of Eastern Medicine (BEM) by removing the term ‘surgery’ from the existing title of Bachelor of Eastern Medicine and Surgery (BEMS)”, reads the letter asking all universities and DAIs in the country to revise the program title through their relevant statutory bodies and stop the new admissions in the BEMS programs.

The document revealed that in line with the purpose to issue the curricula and associated guidelines to all higher education sectors the HEC had developed a curriculum for BEMS in 2015. “However, it has been noted that some misconceptions prevailed among the academic circle and students by pertaining practice to the practice of surgery after completing the said program”, reads the letter.

The sources in the HEC disclosed this scribe that some universities are offering this BEMS while their graduated students approached the relevant bodies to get surgery permission or status with Eastern Medicine education, they have been denied the degree and its curriculum was entitled for this purpose.

The sources went on saying that such students started surgical practice by opening their own clinics or by joining such private clinics. “This was a point from which the whole controversy began and the issue was also taken up by the senate standing committee on national health services and regulations,” they recalled.

The eastern medicine is, basically, an education in Unani medicine and universities offer 4 years and 5 years programs that are also research-based Tibb /medicine. After completing the degree program and one-yearly house internship, National Council of Tib (NCT) licensed graduates can practice eastern medicine as registered Unani physicians.

As per information obtained by Daily Times, Hamdard University, Karachi and Qarshi University, Lahore were pioneers of this degree.

Besides these two institutions, other universities also offer said academic degrees across the country. Some of them traced as The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, Government College University, Faisalabad, University Of Balochistan, Quetta, Unversity of the Poonch, Rawala Kot, Jinnah University for women, Karachi, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Dewan University Karachi, Zia-ud-din Medical University, Karachi, The Superior University Lahore, Himayat-e-islam Tibbiyah College, Lahore and National Institution of Management Sciences, Faisalabad.

An official said while wishing anonymity that most of the times the universities mislead the students by telling them that BEMS is expecting a big rank. They used to deceive them that it was a research based degree on medicine and surgery that is why it is relevant to MBBS scope. “The BEMS has an importance of its kind but in fact it has nothing to do with MBBS,” the official explained.