The Upper House of Parliament Thursday unanimously adopted a bill empowering Pakistan Medical and Dental Council to have quality check at both public and private medical educational institutions across Pakistan.
Earlier, the PMDC was functioning under the Ordinance 1962 that needed to be updated as much progress has been made in the field of medical practices an education. The National Assembly has already passed the bill; however as the Senate has now incorporated some amendments in the bill it would require the Lower House to pass it again.
As per bill, the Council would comprise one member each from Senate, National Assembly, Secretary Health, one member each from each public and private educational institutions, from each province, GB and FATA, a Surgeon General Of Armed Forces Medical Services, one elected member of registered dentists from Sindh, Balochistan and two from Punjab, KPK, and all other stakeholders of medical education. According to the bill, the federal government will transmit the application after being satisfied and the Council that would form recommendations after assessing the institution and qualification that would follow the award of recognition.
In her comments, Minister for National Regulations and Services Firdous Ashiq Awan said after 1962, it was a first step towards revival of institutions. She said owing to mushroom growth of private educational institutions, it was inevitable to have a quality check on their performance and quality of education being imparted there.
Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Dr Asim Awan said legislation was a landmark as for the first time the smaller provinces have also been given representation in PMDC. He said earlier, the PMDC used to be an elite club, but after this legislation, the general doctors would have also their representation in the council. APP/iar/hs ð 15:37/16:16/16:16 20120510:
Nine AGP officers promoted: The auditor general of Pakistan (AGP) has promoted nine private secretaries (BS-18) of its office to next grade.
According to a notification issued here on Thursday, the nine officers including Muhammad Saleem, Khursheed Ahmad, Akbar Ali, Zafar Ali, Farhad Khan, Abdul Hafeez, Muhammad Asif, Gulzar Ahmad Bhutta and Aziz-ur-Rehman were promoted to BS-19 as Senior Private Secretaries with effect from December 18, 2011.
Chaklala Cantt roads need immediate repair: The bad news for the residents of Chaklala Cantonment is that the broken roads and streets in their localities will further break up as the Cantonment authorities will not carry out the routine patch-work this year.
When contacted the senior CCB Engineer Riaz Sheikh said they don’t have a vehicle to carry out the task and have dropped the idea of carrying out repair work during the current year.
It needs to be mentioned here that repair work is routinely carried out during the months of May and June before the start of Monsoon rains. When APP contacted Executive Officer CCB he was as usual not available to comment on the issue. Mohammad Ramzan, a resident of Askari VII commenting on the issue wondered if the Cantonment high ups had read the saying: “A stitch in time saves nine.” Various roads and streets in the jurisdiction of Chaklala need urgent repair before they break up further. The residents of various areas have demanded of the Station Commander to take notice of the matter and take remedial steps before the situation worsen further.
60 Pakistanis deported from Greece arrive home: As many as 60 Pakistanis deported from Greece arrived at Banazir Bhutto International Air Port through Gulf airline here on Thursday.
All of the deportees were taken into custody and shifted to Federal Investigation Agency Passport cell for investigation. Greece and Turkey deport hundreds of Pakistani illegal immigrants annually. Many Pakistani young men seeking jobs in Greece and other European countries pay large sum of money to agents.
