PMDC has unjustifiably hired over 40 people in one year

The Pakistan Medical & Dental Council (PMDC) / Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) has unjustifiably appointed more than 40 people at their regional office in Karachi. All these appointments have been made during the past one year on political grounds, without getting any advertisement published for the vacancies, and keeping merit aside.

Earlier, there were only seven employees at the Karachi office. The newly recruited officers include a manager and an assistant manager, who have been employed at high salaries, and three telephone operators, who have been recruited for operating one telephone.

At present, the PMDC does not have their own office in Karachi. Two rooms at the National Research Institute for Fertility Care in Karachi serve as the council’s office, where there is no place to sit, due to which most of the employees are absent or leave after marking their attendance.

When the Karachi office stopped having enough room, the PMDC set up another office in Jamshoro. It has been established in two rooms of the Liaquat Medical University, Jamshoro, where five employees from Hyderabad and the surrounding areas have been transferred or appointed.

A few employees are posted at the PMDC’s regional offices, including seven in Lahore, three each in Quetta and Peshawar, and one in Gilgit. A source told The News that as soon as the new government became stable last year, the Ministry of Health dismissed more than 60 employees of the PMC, even though the dismissed employees had been recruited through regular advertisement.

However, important officials and supportive staff were dismissed as political party workers, then replaced by their own people on 89-day contracts, which are extended every three months.

Interestingly, everything at the PMDC is done online, including registration, inspection, test and admission, which the PMDC Islamabad looks after. So, these offices are set up to provide only information and convenience, for which they require a few people, but not 40.

PMDC spokesperson Hina Shaukat said the council is a responsible organisation that always follows the rules and regulations, and does not believe in violating any law.

She said that Sindh being the largest province and Karachi being the biggest city of Pakistan, various regional offices across Sindh have been established on the request of the doctors living in far-flung areas only to facilitate the public.

She also said the PMDC issued proper advertisements in national dailies for the recruitment process. However, she added, appointments of daily wagers have been made to look after the regional offices and sub-offices of Sindh until proper advertisements are issued.

Therefore, she pointed out, the PMDC being a capable organisation has neither violated any recruitment process nor made any unnecessary hiring, but has always followed the rules and regulations. For the same reason, she continued, the PMDC has opened up offices in Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu & Kashmir.