Daily Times

In order to make the country’s healthcare sector on par with international standards, Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) has planned to introduce biometric verification system (BVS) for already registered health practitioners/doctors and upcoming such registrations, Daily Times has learnt reliably.

A well-informed source in the PMC told that the decision was made by the authorities concerned recently, and will be exercised very soon. “This was done in the tenure of previous council but it could not be executed. Now the BVS is supposed to be notified by new council very soon,” he said while wishing anonymity.

It is worth mentioning that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had recently withdrawn the names of seven members of the PMC after taking notice of “malpractices” in the authority. Subsequently, a search committee for members of the PMC was established which received around 100 applications. Out of them, the PM approved seven names as final candidates a couple of days back and they have been notified accordingly. The new members include Jawad Amin Khan, Chaudhry Sultan Mansoor, M Shahhir Kasbati, Prof Dr Noshad Ahmed Sheikh, Prof Dr Naqibullah Achakzai, Dr M Zubair Khan and Dr Khurshid Ahmad Nasim. Dr Noshad Ahmed Sheikh has been elected chairman of the body.

The official said that the PMC took this decision to avert the chances of any malafide practice in registration.

“The commission was already trying to give its best services, but after this development, there would be zero possibility of any kind of swindling or fiddling in this regard,” he explained, adding that as per plan, the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) would also be taken on board.

“An online portal will be linked with NADRA for candidates’ data verification,” he said, adding that besides the authentication of system, this is also a facilitation for the doctors as they would be enabled to be registered without minimum physical visit or involvement at the PMC office.

Currently, according to the PMC, there are around 50 Pakistan undergraduate colleges and the commission which have recognized the degrees of 4,000 foreign undergraduate medical colleges that are in its list of registration. Thousands of students are graduated by these colleges every year who then get registration for licensing in order to do practice in their respective fields.

Meanwhile, as soon as the new council was notified, the PMC reinstated over 30 employees of the defunct Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC). It has directed them to join the commission as regular employees just as they were before termination. During the tenure of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, the PMDC was dissolved and PMC was established. The permanent employees were initially made officers on special duty (OSDs) and then they were terminated under a golden handshake scheme in 2021.

However, the current government had announced to restore the PMDC through legislation and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif withdrew the names of seven members of the PMC and then new members were nominated through aforementioned search committee to accomplish this task.