Federal Minister for Health, Abdul Qadir Patel has told the media that the government had decided to start an investigation on illegalities and irregularities that occurred during the tenure of the past government in the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC). According to the Health Minister, the PMC first awarded a contract to the auditor of an organization and then registered the same organization after the contract, while degrees were also issued to fake doctors. He said that the PMC introduced a forced golden handshake scheme for employees under which many employees were made jobless, while on the other hand, the institution hired several blue-eyed individuals on hefty salaries at the same time. According to him, the current government intends to move these cases to NAB for investigation. The government is moving to abolish the unnecessary tests to decrease the burden of the medical students.
The new coalition government assumed office in late April and after the appointment of the Ministers, advisors and secretaries it became functional within a week. In the first go, the government is undoing and redoing things along with restructuring the departments and launching new initiatives in all fields. Over the past few weeks, the government has done a bulk of work including introduction of important amendments in NAB law, Electoral rules, introduction of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Bill-2022, preparation of next year’s fiscal estimate and many other things. According to reports, the National Assembly has recently passed the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council Bill-2022 to make the PMDC a democratic, independent, and powerful body, so it can produce professional doctors to serve the country. The passage of Pakistan Medical and Dental Council Bill-2022 will not only dissolve the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) and will reinstate the PMDC but also restore several laws relating to the medical education, colleges and medical universities.
The PTI government had introduced several new things in the system including digitalization of the system, launch of PM portal, health card and MTI system in the health Sector. Apparently, the coalition government is completely undoing the work of the PTI government. Although there were several things which demanded a review or restructuring, several things were providing best services to the public. Apparently, the introduction of PIMS-Bill 2022 will revert the Pakistan Medical Teaching institute (MTI) Ordinance that introduced an insurance system in the Health sector along with the introduction of Sehat Cards in most parts of the country. Although, there were some flaws in the MTI system which merits a judicial review and merger in the overall health system of the country. In fact, sehat card was a great hope for the poor in respect of costly treatment of cancer, kidney and heart diseases.
Realistically, the policy of blind opposition and denial of everything is unfair and illogical, the government must constitute boards of experts in all sectors to ascertain the effectiveness and service delivery of the system and undo or amend the things on merit instead of political bias. The nation demands merit and transparency, speedy justice, instant services delivery and the rule of law from the government and its institutions, hence corruption, nepotism and lax behavior is not a democracy while rule of law cannot be termed as dictatorship or authoritarianism. Afterall, the public is perceiving all proclamations and will respond to them accordingly.
