PMDC probe committee recommends action over illegal registration of degrees

A matter pertaining to violations of rules and regulations has rocked the Pakistan Medical & Dental Council (PMDC), Islamabad, the apex regulator and registration authority for medical & dental education in the country.

According to available information, the PMDC has recently registered some postgraduate medical and dental qualifications which were never recognized or registered under the statutes of the council. President PMDC Dr Rizwan Taj took serious notice of the situation and constituted an inquiry committee comprising Khalid Shabbir, officer Incharge Postgraduate Department, and Irfan Mahmood, computer programmer.

The committee has submitted its findings and recommendations to the president of the council for necessary action as per the law. According to the inquiry report, PMDC staff have illegally registered MPhil (Hematology) degrees granted by the Khyber Medical University Peshawar and MSc (Endodontics) degrees awarded by the Riphah International University Islamabad. The inquiry report alarmingly reveals that these degrees were registered with the signature of Acting Registrar Dr Azhar Shah by the licensing staff without fulfilling legal formalities, including approval from the competent authority, the PMDC. When the issue of illegal registrations came to notice of the authorities, these degrees were abruptly deleted from the PMDC database; again without following any due procedure and or approval of the authority.

The doctors whose postgraduate degrees are illegally registered have now been approached by the acting registrar through official letters to surrender the original certificate, but they are reluctant to return the PMDC certificate. This inquiry has highlighted serious issues and concerns with regard to the security and safety of the PMDC national database of doctors as well as its registration system, according to medical experts.

The PMDC president, on the basis of the inquiry findings, has directed that a foolproof mechanism be ensured for the registration of medical / dental degrees, and initiated disciplinary proceedings against the “concerned staff”. In this regard, one web developer/IT officer and two licensing assistants have been served show-cause notices for termination from service. According to highly-placed sources, registration of unrecognized degrees with the PMDC is impossible without the support of senior officers. However, legal action is taken only against junior officers/officials as scapegoats while no senior officer has been investigated thoroughly in this case so far. According to PMDC spokesperson Hina Shaukat, there are around 1,000 postgraduate qualifications registered.

Two qualifications were registered by the registration section assistant only by mistake, which was canceled on the third day by taking full notice of the institute and these certificates were also removed from the website. The PMDC president later conducted an internal investigation into the matter and conducted an inquiry which on completion revealed that it was a mere staff error and these two employees were transferred from the section concerned.