The Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination (NHSRC) has set up a committee to investigate anomalies in the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) elections and sought the opinion of doctors’ associations on the matter.
Health Director General Dr Jehanzeb Aurakzai heads the three-member inquiry committee, which will submit its finding within 15 days, the participants of a meeting between NHSRC Minister Saira Afzal Tarar and doctors’ representatives in Islamabad on Friday told The Express Tribune.
Dozens of doctors, including 27 notified members of the PMDC, met at an Islamabad farmhouse on Friday where they drew up a resolution calling for new and transparent PMDC elections, a doctor who attended the meeting said. They later presented the resolution to the minister.
“Some PMDC members said that all the members should be notified, but the minister was of the opinion that if they truly had the mandate of the doctors’ community, they would be re-elected,” he said.
He said that the doctors told the minister that an interim committee tasked with holding the PMDC elections – consisting of Professor Masood Hameed, Professor Syed Awais, Dr Asim Hussain, Professor M Zubair and Professor Naveed – had violated the PMDC constitutions by running in the elections themselves. They had also violated the rules by holding the polls on August 7 with a short quorum, as doctors’ associations had boycotted the elections in protest against the candidature of the interim committee’s members. “The interim setup itself declared five of its members as PMDC members elected unopposed,” the doctor said.
A 20-strong delegation of the Young Doctors Association (YDA) Punjab is to make a presentation on the PMDC elections to the minister on Wednesday
“The YDA and senior doctors have been campaigning against the PMDC’s occupation and on Friday, the NHSRC Ministry accepted our reservations and initiated an inquiry into the rigged elections. We will give a detailed briefing to the ministry,” said Dr Shabbir Chaudhry of the YDA.
He said that there were 70 elected members of the PMDC of which 27 had been notified. He said cases against many of them were pending in the courts. “Their elections have been challenged. We are satisfied with the ministry’s decision. We want a prompt and timely intervention to save the prestigious medical regulatory body,” Dr Chaudhry said.
A senior doctor who signed the resolution said that they were pleased with the minister’s response to the doctors. “Her attitude was very positive. We endorse her decisions. We will also go and give our presentation and we are hopeful the ministry will do its best to save the PMDC and hold fresh, transparent elections,” he said.
A senior NHSRC Ministry official said that the minister was determined to “protect the mandate of the doctors’ community and that’s why it was decided to invite all stakeholders to give presentations. The inquiry committee will complete its inquiry within the set time and then a final decision will be taken about the elections.”
Published in The Express Tribune, September 8th, 2013.