ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly on Wednesday passed the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council Bill-2022, aimed at reforming the PMDC to make it a democratic, independent and powerful body for producing professional doctors to serve the country.
The bill, moved by Dr Mahreen Razak Bhutto and Syed Agha Rafiullah, was passed after clause by clause reading with a majority vote.
According to the statement of objects and reasons of the legislation, membership of the Pakistan Medical Commission(PMC ) had been given mostly to non-medical professionals and irrelevant people making policies for medical and dental professionals. “One could imagine that if law-making and judicial policies making tasks are assigned to the medical and dental or other irrelevant professionals what would be the outcome?”
The statement said there were more than 150 medical colleges and dental schools in the country that produced more than 12,800 doctors and 2,100 dental surgeons every year.
“Our disease pattern is different from the USA (United States of America) and the UK (United Kingdom), and our cultural and social behaviour demands a different kind of attention.”
It said the majority of the country’s population lived in an unhealthy and toxic environment as the rural areas and massive city slums were without clean water or sewerage system.
The PMC Act-2022, it said, was not well thought-out and would not be acceptable. “It is time to restore PMDC with reforms to make it a democratic, independent and powerful body that can produce professional doctors who can work for the country.”