Khudayar Mohla –
ISLAMABAD, (TLTP): Paying heed to the plight of doctors and medical colleges facing a backlog of registration and other affairs in the country on Friday Supreme Court reconstituted Pakistan Medical and Dental Council while nominating former judge of top court Ejaz Afzal Khan as President of the Council.
A three-member bench of the Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed passed the order in response to federal government plea challenging Islamabad High Court (IHC) directives in contempt petition to federal health secretary Tanveer Ahmed Qureshi for reopening the Council.
On February 11, a single-member bench of the IHC comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani had declared a presidential ordinance for the dissolution of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PM&DC) as null and void under which Pakistan Medical Commission was formed. However, government remained adamant not to open the PM&DC despite standing High Court orders till April 07.
Announcing verdict in the matter on Friday, the apex court bench said that Attorney General for Pakistan Khalid Javed Khan urged the court to nominate a new President of the ad-hoc Council.
“Federal government considers it necessary, owing to the work and the importance of PM&DC in addressing various pressing issues faced by it including huge backlog of pending registration of large number of doctors, dealing with matters involving admissions, admission policies, registration, renewals of registration of private medical colleges etc which have been pending since long that a whole time Chairman should be appointed who may be able to devote his full time and energy run the Council effectively”, stated in the court order.
It is worth mentioning that during January 2018 the then Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar had dissolved a 35-member PM&DC and substituted it with a nine-member ad-hoc council under one of the retired judge of top court Shakirullah Jan .
On Friday, the top court said in its order that AGP apprised the bench that owing to Shakirullah Jan’s pressing engagements as Chairman National Industrial Relations Commission and member of Law & Justice Commission of Pakistan it would be unfair and unreasonable to burden him with further responsibilities of a pressing nature.
Accepting the AGP request, the top court appointed former judge of the Supreme Court Ejaz Afzal Khan as President of the PM&DC who retired in May 2018, adding the court order said the decision is taken after Shakirullah Jan has expressed unwillingness to continue any further because of his other engagements as President of the ad-hoc council.
Other council members are the AGP or his nominee, federal secretary health, surgeon general of the Pakistan Armed Forces, the vice-chancellor (VC) of National University of Medical Sciences, VC University of Health Sciences, VC Jinnah Sindh Medical University, VC Khyber Medical University, VC Bolan University of Medical and Health Sciences, VC Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University and the principal of De’Montmorency College of Dentistry.
The order stated that the council shall meet as soon as possible and the AG’s office shall, with prior approval of the council’s president, intimate the date of its first meeting to all concerned. The council president shall also, in consultation with the council, appoint a registrar of the council. “All existing record of PM&DC shall be handed over to the authorized representative of Secretary Health.” The court further said that the secretary will “full assistance in convening and holding of meetings of the council”.
“All functionaries of PM&DC who may be in possession/custody of any record of PM&DC shall also handover all relevant records to authorized representatives of the concerned Ministry or a person nominated by the Chairman of the Commission”, the order concluded.
