Ministry of National Quack Services

• Apathy of the National Council for Homeopathy is creating unskilled doctors that may offer a cure but end up killing someone

They are called ‘doctors’ and have the liberty under existing laws to start medical practice anywhere in the country, with a legal license to cure or kill.

The 50-year-old legal cover, rampant corruption in regulatory bodies and ignorance of the Federal Health Ministry have helped turn majority of homoeopathic doctors into mere licensed quacks.

The present-day homoeopathic system in the country and myopic baboos of the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination (M/o NHSR&C) have  failed spectacularly in establishing across the board standards and ensuring quality of education of the graduating ‘doctors’. From  establishing a homoeopathic medical college to the granting of diplomas, everything is fake and every step deadly.

The National Council for Homoeopathy (NCH) is the regulatory body to recommend establishment of a new homoeopathic college. It is recognised by the M/o NHSR&C. Adherence to any yardstick or standard criteria, however, has never been a problem for the college owners. Currently there exist as many as 140 homoeopathic medical institutions across the country.

Sources privy to the system in the Council and Ministry claim that only three to four per cent of the existing colleges meet the criteria or follow any quality education standards.

“Most colleges are owned by the members of the council or their relatives and friends. There exists no mechanism for impartial and transparent inspection or it has been rendered ineffective with the culture of bribery and nepotism,” a ministry official told Pakistan Today on the condition of anonymity.

It is pertinent to mention here that the NCH comprises 21 members. Thirteen members are elected by registered homoeopaths across the country through vote every five years while the rest of the seven members are nominated by the ministry.

Documents available with Pakistan Today reveal that in January last year a federal government inspection team conducted an inspection of Bahawalpur Homoeopathic Medical College.

“The college is extremely substandard and is not imparting any type of professional/homoeopathic medical education,” the report observed.

“The college premises were so much dirty and all the books, laboratory items/equipment were completely covered with dust. Chemicals in the laboratory are too old and expired to be used. It has been revealed that professional training and practical education is not being provided to the students for the last 5 to 6 months. About 30 blank answer books of National Council for Homoeopathy were lying on the table which is serious violation of standard procedure of examination,” the report said.

All 14 points of the inspection report expose shocking facts about the functioning of the so-called medical college.

After the lapse of one year, the ministry or council has yet not been able to take any action against the “college”. Under existing laws, the ministry wields the power to derecognise fake educational institutes.

When Pakistan Today contacted NCH President Mahmood-ul-Haq Abbasi, he simply challenged the inspection report and said that everything was going well in the college.

Two years ago, Minister of State Saira Afzal Tarar had resolved that she would initiate strict action against irregularities at Homoeopathic and Tibb Councils once she succeeded in reining PMDC in. Most colleges present the same picture and the high-ups in the ministry including, Saira Afzal, are well aware of the issue but no people’s representative or government servant dares to raise their voice.

Any person with any qualification and professional background that has been able to register a body under the Societies Registration Act 1876 can start a homoeopathic educational institute. Initially colleges are started at a reasonable building but once they are recognised by the ministry on the recommendation of the NCH, the management wastes no time in shifting them to smaller and cheaper premises.

How can the council ask any management body about the change in buildings when its own president sets no better example.

Recently, NCH President Mahmood-ul-Haq Abbasi shifted his own Murree Homoeopathic Medical College from Murree to Islamabad overnight. As per Section 17 of Unani, Ayurvedic and Homoeopathic (UAH) Act 1965, no college can change its building without prior approval from a recognised authority i.e. the federal government. Abbasi not only changed the building but shifted the entire apparatus from Punjab to Islamabad Capital Territory, but the ministry failed to take any action against him.

MANAGEMENT WOES

Almost all colleges continue enrolling new students unabated until the advent of exams and there exists no concept of deadlines. Any candidate having passed matriculation with science in any division is eligible to become a ‘doctor’.

Matriculation “with science” was also introduced in the UAH Act 1965 during former military dictator Pervez Musharraf’s regime in 2002, before which a ‘matriculation’ was enough to become a physician.

“The ministry can and must introduce amendments in the 50-year old Act otherwise incompetent physicians will continue playing with the lives of the masses,” says Homoeopathic Dr Muhammad Saleem.

On the other hand, President NCH Dr Mahmood-ul-Haq Abbasi also holds the ministry responsible for the outdated homoeopathic education system.

“We recommended amendments in UAH Act 1965 in 2013 but the ministry has so far failed to introduce any piece of legislation in this regard.”

Without passing through a standard educational system, these ‘qualified’ diploma holder homeopathic doctors ultimately indulge in malpractice. Having no expertise or training to treat ailing community, they unlawfully employ allopathic medicines or steroids or prescribe fake homoeopathic patent medicines manufactured locally in one-room pharmaceutical companies. A number of such non-qualified but legally registered homoeopaths’ even start selling liquor. They not only play havoc with the health of the masses but also defame competent homoeopathic practitioners.

“The National Accountability Bureau should come forward to check the rampant corruption in the system whose fountainhead lies in the council; that is if the M/o NHSR&C lacks the will to address the problem,” says Dr Saleem.

The so-called colleges are run under ‘no attendance, no lectures, and no studies’ slogan. As a student has not attended any class, they are offered whole-hearted facilitation in exams by the colleges and even then any unlucky chap fails, the sheets can be re-checked to make a candidate fit enough to receive a diploma.

When the Senate Standing Committee on Health decided to probe the marking scandal of the Council in recent past, the whole lot of answer sheets dumped at council’s storeroom was sold to a trash vendor.

The Senate body was probing a complaint moved by Pakistan Homoeopathic Doctors Association (PHDA) in which it had been alleged that the National Council for Homoeopathy had changed the result of over 500 students by rechecking their answer scripts illegally after the declaration of result of the 2012 annual exams. It must be remembered that it took three years to initiate an enquiry into these gross allegation and that too on the orders of the Senate standing body, as the ministry did not bother.  Meanwhile, Abbasi maintains that no record had been destroyed.

The incompetence of the Council can be gauged by the competence of its President Dr Mahmood-ul-Haq Abbasi. On his Facebook page, he tells with honour that he did his F.Sc. in 1979 but spells pre-medical as “Pre Medicle”. This “Pre-Medicle” president is facing serious charges of corruption and malpractices but has been made a member of the sub-committee constituted to introduce reforms in the homoeopathic system by the Prevention Committee of NAB.

Dr Mahmood-ul-Haq Abbasi on his Facebook page also boasts about his position as member NAB committee and spells committee as “commiter”.

Former NCH president and Pakistan Homoeopathic Doctors Association chairman Dr Nasir Chaudhry believes that the council has virtually failed in performing its functions. “To regulate education and research and register homoeopathic practitioners are its two core functions. It has badly failed to deliver and could not even revise the syllabus of DHMS diploma courses in the last 50 years. How can anyone expect more from it?” Dr Nasir asked.

He claimed that corruption had marred the whole examination system. “Only boards and universities can conduct exams and the existing rules should be amended to bar the Council from conducting exams,” he added. He said the Ministry of National Health Services had lost control over the council and was not exercising its legal powers to control and regulate the regulatory body i.e. the NCH.

“I have submitted hundreds of complaints with concrete evidence to the secretary M/o NHSR&C. He orders “action and report” to his subordinates in the ministry and then all ends in fiasco,” Dr Nasir said, alleging that NCH officials were indulged in fearless corruption in connivance with the baboos of the ministry.

Admitting the incompetence of existing Council, Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Secretary Muhammad Ayub Sheik said that the incumbent council’s eligibility case was pending in the Islamabad High Court.

“We have declared the incumbent council illegal before the honourable court in written and we have revamped the Nursing Council, Tibb Council etc. and soon will be able to regulate affairs of the NCH,” he said.