Taking a Suo motu notice of inflated fee charged by private medical college’s Chief Justice Supreme Court of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar banned admissions in all unregistered medical colleges during a hearing at the Supreme Court Lahore Registry on Tuesday. The Chief Justice also called the bank accounts of medical colleges’ owners. In hearing of this case on Thursday, the Chief Justice made it clear that “the court does not want money to be a hindrance in the way of education. He had earlier this week taken notice of deteriorating standards in medical profession and the unavailability of sufficient health facilities and launched an inquiry into the government’s efforts towards improving the health sector.
Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) are hand in glove with the owners of private medical colleges in charging inflated fee. The minimum bench mark of 0.6 million per year set by PMDC is also on a very high side. In Khyber Pukhtunkhwa a medical college in Abottabad charges Rs. 1.2 million for the first year and then Rs. 0.8 million per year for the next four years. PMDC is acting like a mafia for discouraging the talented students to get their M.B.B.S and M.D degrees in medicine and surgery from Russia and China by not conducting Registration Examination on time for doctor who get their degrees from the highly reputed medical institutions at quite reasonable fee structures. Consequently, the doctors with degrees from foreign countries easily pass the Plab -I and Plab- 2 examinations and go abroad for jobs. This attitude of PMDC accentuates brain drain from the country. There is a dire need of taking cognizance of high handedness of PMDC shown towards the medical graduates from the medical institution of China, Russia and East European countries as no Registration Examination has been conducted for the past one and a half year despite receiving the examination fee from foreign qualified doctors.
There are a number of private medical colleges which do not have their own teaching hospitals. Students from one such college have to travel from Abottabad to Hiripur District Headquarter Hospital. There are complaints about the lack Anatomy halls for dissection purposes. The dearth of facility for various specialties is another inefficiency of private medical colleges. The students also complain of heavy fines imposed on them without any cogent reason. Fines are levied to raise more revenue for the college owners. Hopefully, the Supreme Court will also look into the affairs of PMDC particularly its hostility towards the doctors who get their degrees from the prestigious medical institutions of foreign countries.
