Indecisive PMDC toys with 200 medical graduates

• PMDC reluctant to enlist doctors who graduated from 7 leading Chinese universities
• Sino-Pak ties likely to brace rare ‘diplomatic storm’ over issue
• Despite issuing NoCs, PMDC adamant not to implement court judgments

The fate of over 200 medical graduates is uncertain as top management from the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) continues to refuse to register students who successfully completed MBBS from seven of the top universities in China.

These qualified doctors have been left jobless despite have obtained No Objection Certificates (NoC) from PMDC at the time of their admissions. The PMDC decision not to enrol these students will also have an impact on the future of over 500 other students that are currently completing their education in other universities.

The controversy may also trigger a diplomatic row between China and Pakistan, who are called ‘all weather friends’ due to their strategic friendship spanning the last 60 years. While Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is banking on huge investments from China to help build a “Roshan Pakistan”, this controversy may turn into a storm that will rain on his parade.

When contacted, a PMDC official admitted that the NoCs were issued to the students. He said that things got complicated after the parliament passed a law, which added an amendment into the PMDC Ordinance of August 13, 2012, which made it applicable to all students that graduate from foreign universities.

The students say that the law should be applicable on students who got admissions in foreign universities after the law was passed in 2012. PMDC, however, claims that it would implement it from retrospective dates.

Documents available with Pakistan Today reveal that PMDC had issued NoC for all the students who it recommended to get admissions in five universities in China. However, it is now reluctant to exempt them from National Examination Board Examination (NEB Exam).

Israr Abbasi, a student who graduated from Xinjiang Medical University in 2013, told Pakistan Today that the parents of all the affected youngsters had spent a huge chunk of their hard-earned money on their foreign education expecting them to become successful in their profession.

“However, despite having a degree, we are still a burden for our parents. Since the past few years, we are going from pillar to post to get ourselves registered with the PMDC but to no avail, as PMDC registrar is confusing our matter,” he added.

“We are doctors who graduated from China. It should be noted that seven Chinese medical universities were recognized by PMDC in July 2009, and NoCs were issued to us, assuring us that we would be exempted from NEB Exam. The NEB is only mandatory for students who get their degrees from universities which are not recognised by the PMDC,” he added.

Another student, Dr Nauman, explained the dilemma. “Till February 2013, all graduates from these institutions were granted registration with the PMDC without the NEB Exam. We got admissions in these universities as we were advised by PMDC officials who asked us to get registered with institutions listed in the second schedule of PMDC. But after completing our graduation, we were denied our due right of registration by PMDC officials,” he said.

“We put up an application based on which the executive committee of the PMDC held a meeting on September 30, 2013, but it decided not to enlist us after the amendment,” said Dur Muhammad, another graduate from China.

“We challenged the PMDC decision through the Islamabad High Court in October 2013. The court granted us an “interim relief” during February 2014, and allowed us to start our house jobs until the main case was decided,” he said, adding that instead of implementing the court order, the PMDC refused to register them once more.

“We filed a contempt plea against the PMDC with the court as the PMDC filed an intra-court appeal (ICA) against the interim order. This PMDC appeal was also dismissed by Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui on merit by single bench,” he added. However, the PMDC did not implement the court orders again, subsequent to which Justice Riaz Ahmed Khan started contempt proceedings against the PMDC registrar.

“Meanwhile, PMDC moved Supreme Court against the IHC order but once again their appeal was dismissed and the apex court ordered PMDC to grant relief to the petitioners in June last year. But once again the PMDC executive committee violated the court orders,” Dur Mohammad added.

He said that later the main case was transferred to Justice Athar Minallah, who before taking oath as a judge had been representing PMDC as a lawyer in some other cases. Justice Athar Minallah decided the matter in favour of the PMDC.

“Now we are going to challenge the single-bench judgement in the ICA. We urge the Prime Minister to direct the PMDC to enlist all those students who took admissions in previously recognized medical universities before August 13, 2012, as we were granted permission by PMDC Council in its 117th and 118th meetings,” he concluded.