The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday issued fresh notice to the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council’s (PMDC) president to file comments on two identical petitions of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC) executive director and joint executive director who challenged a show-cause notice served on them by the regulatory body.
Headed by Chief Justice Maqbool Baqar, a division bench also extended till November 26 its interim order, restraining the PMDC from taking coercive action against the petitioners and JPMC’s top officials.
The bench also directed the provincial health secretary and the Jinnah Sindh Medical University (JSMU) vice chancellor to respond to the two separate petitions.
The petitioners, Dr Seemi Jamali and Dr Tasneem, submitted that the PMDC had served show-cause notices on them on September 27 asking them to appear before PMDC’s disciplinary committee and explain as to why strict disciplinary action may not be initiated against them for not cooperating with the PMDC’s team in conducting inspection of facilities of basic and clinical side at JSMU and creating hurdles in their statutory duty.
The petitioners’ counsel told the judges that petitioners objected to the inspection saying the JPMC was not affiliated with the university or it was not a constituent hospital but they were being asked to facilitate the inspection team in carrying out their function. They addressed a letter to PMDC in this regard a day before the team was scheduled to carry out the inspection.
“In complete disregard to their objections and related laws, the team conducted the inspection on September 24 without intimating petitioners.”
He argued that the show-cause notice was unconstitutional and mala fide of the respondents who wanted to remove petitioners from their postsillegally. He requested the court to declare as illegal the show-cause notices and suspend its operation.