Senate Standing Committee On National Health Services Meets

The Senate Standing Committee on National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination (NHSRC) was held here on Thursday with Senator Dr Muhammad Humayun Mohmand in the chair to discuss various matters related to the ministry concerned and its attached departments

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Feb, 2023 ):The Senate Standing Committee on National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination (NHSRC) was held here on Thursday with Senator Dr Muhammad Humayun Mohmand in the chair to discuss various matters related to the ministry concerned and its attached departments.

The Senate Committee deliberated on the public petition relating to third-party analysis on the difficulty level of the MDCAT test 2022 conducted by the University of Health Sciences (UHS) and Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU).

Dr Suleman, Registrar of Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), apprised the committee that the authority maintains a 'Questions Bank' and questions for all sorts of examinations are selected from it.

However, the PMDC has received a total of 808 complaints from students for rechecking the examination, and a minute anomaly was observed in the marks of only three students, he said, adding that these kinds of anomalies mainly occur due to wrong questions being made part of Question Bank.

The Chairman Committee expressed satisfaction with the reply of PMDC and disposed of the matter.

The appeal submitted by Syed Zulqurnain Kazmi for reinstatement in service was also taken up. The complainant, Syed Zulqurnain Kazmi, informed the committee that he was appointed on a contract basis in 2009 and his services were made regularized in 2013 against the post of chief statistical officer.

However, he suffered a brain haemorrhage in 2013 and acquired medical leave for three years, and joined back in 2017 for merely six months.

Kamran Rehman, Additional Secretary for the Ministry of National Health Services, apprised the committee that after availing medical leave for three years the complainant remained absent for around 700 days on different occasions and despite being declared fit by Central Medical Board eventually get dismissed from service in 2021.

Senator Muhammad Asad Ali Junejo inquired as to whether the previous records of the complainant were taken into consideration before the pronouncement of the decision.

In reply to that, Kamran Rehman stated that no previous record of the candidate is available because the concerned merely joined duty six months after the regularization.

The chairman committee disposed of the matter while commenting that despite complex medical history, there isn't any sufficient evidence that can be seen tilted in the favour of the complainant.

The senate body also discussed the matter of advance charging of fees by private medical colleges. Senator Prof Dr Mehr Tak Roghani, the mover of the matter, informed the committee that Jinnah Medical College is demanding an advance fee for the whole year from new students which amounts to around 16 lac rupees.

Senator Dr Humayun Mohmand questioned that, as of now, the PMDC is being run by interim members and whether or not PMDC is empowered to take such decisions. To which, Registrar PMDC told the committee that the said decision was taken by PMC, not PMDC.

The Chairman Committee declared the decision of PMC absurd and reiterated that the hopes of many parents for their children's bright future could be diminished by such decisions. So, he advised the ministry to take the matter into consideration.

While considering the public condition regarding providing exemption to MCPS students For FCPS degrees in consonance with other qualifications or degrees. The CPSC officials highlighted the differences in scope and induction into the two programmes and argued that they were two different programs.

However, the Chairman recommended the CPSC officials to provide relaxation to students of MCPS for the FCPS examination.

The meeting was attended by Senator Prof Dr Mehr Taj Roghani, Senator Muhammad Asad Ali Khan Junejo, Senator Fawzia Arshad, Senator Dilawar Khan, Additional Secretary for NHSRC Kamran Rehman Khan, Registrar PMDC Dr Suleman, Chief Manager CPSP Major(Retd) Sohail and other concerned officers.