An emergent meeting of the PMA Centre was held at the PMA House, Karachi to discuss the affairs of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC). The meeting was attended by Dr S M Qaisar Sajjad, Secretary-General, PMA Centre, Dr Qazi Wasiq Treasurer, PMA Centre, and office bearers of PMA, Karachi along with many other senior members of the organization.
Meanwhile, Dr Ikram Ahmed Tunio, President, PMA Centre, and Dr Salma Aslam Kundi, President, Elect PMA Centre, and Dr Muhammad Ashraf Nizami, Immediate Past President, PMA Centre, also participated in the meeting from Larkana, Abbottabad, and Lahore through video link. Dr Amir Saleem and Dr Saeed Ahmed, Joint Secretaries, PMA Centre, also participated through video link from Kasur and Quetta.
The participants of the meeting appreciated Mian Ateeq Sheikh, Chairman of the Senate’s Standing Committee on National Health Services and the members of the Standing Committee including Dr Meher Taj Roghani, Dr Sikandar Mandhro, Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq, and Senator Ashok Kumar for their bold stance against the PMDC Ordinance 2019.
The Chairman and members of the Standing Committee rightly criticized the new PMDC for not being a democratic representative body but a selected council which is now trying to bring back corrupt individuals into the council. The powers of the Council have also been reduced through this ordinance.
The PMA has already rejected the PMDC ordinance 2019 under which this selected council has been formed, which is in total violation of the PMDC ordinance of 1962. They had even written a letter to the heads of all the political parties and have requested them to reject this PMDC ordinance 2019 at every level.
The PMA has always stressed upon to make the PMDC an autonomous, independent, transparent, democratic, and vibrant body to regulate medical education in the country in a transparent way.
The PMA requested the members of the senate and national assembly to come forward and support the PMA by raising their voice against this illegal, unconstitutional, and destructive ordinance and reject it.