LAHORE,Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has rejected a summary seeking introduction of a uniform policy for admission to public- and private-sector medical and dental colleges, leaving little chance of bringing the private institutions under government authority, Dawn’s learnt.
Shahbaz Rejects uniform policy for MBBS
The summary has been rejected on the basis of certain objections and legal complications pointed out by the Law Department in the light of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) Ordinance 1962, the PMDC Regulations 2010 and the UHS Lahore Ordinance 2002.
These laws clearly declare that the provincial government has no legal authority to bring the private medical and dental institutions under a uniform policy.
According to the documents obtained by Dawn, the Punjab Law Department in its recommendations had rejected any role of the PMDC and the UHS in regulating the private medical and dental colleges through centralisation of their admission process.
The health department also endorsed the viewpoint and requested the chief minister to ‘drop’ the scheme of bringing the private medical and dental institutions under a new policy for admissions.
Health Secretary Muhammad Jehanzeb Khan confirmed the development, saying the idea of introducing new uniform admission policy was floated by some participants in a meeting chaired by the chief minister a couple of months back.
Later, the case was re-examined in several meetings, one of which was chaired by the chief secretary, he added.The matter of regulating the private medical institutions by the Punjab government has remained a hotly debated issue at formal and informal meetings, discussions and various forums.
The documents say: “Government in the Health Department has no lawful authority itself to monitor or control admission process in private medical and dental colleges; however, subject to the 1962 Ordinance and the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council Regulations, University of Health Sciences can exercise reasonable control on such institutions through the tools of affiliation and disaffiliation and the terms and conditions prescribed for grant of affiliation and continuance of affiliation. For the purpose, the UHS is empowered to promulgate appropriate statutory instruments.”
t further says: “The Provincial Admission Authority (PAA), constituted by the provincial government to finalise admissions to the public-sector medical and dental institutions, has no legal authority to finalise admissions to the private-sector medical colleges.
Each such college has to admit students on merit strictly in accordance with regulatory prescriptions of PMDC, and subject to that, by the affiliating University,” the law department recommended.
Law experts further clarified that as the centralised admission for the private medical and dental institutions by a provincial authority was not envisaged under the existing regulatory framework, the role of the provincial government was confined to holding of Central Entrance Test (CET) for the eligible candidates and
to constitute PAA for purposes of admission to the public-sector medical and dental colleges.
The health and law officers also cited references of the 18th Amendment in the recommendations to convince the chief minister.
They said: “By virtue of the Constitution (Eighteen Amendment) Act 2010, the subjects, relating to ‘legal, medical and other professions’ and ‘standards in the institutions for higher educations research, scientific and technical institutions’, have been shifted from the Concurrent Legislative List (Science omitted) to Part-II of the Federal Legislative List.
“Although, the subjects now fall within the policy making purview of the Council of Common Interests, the legislative and executive authority wholly vests in the Federal Government in terms of Article 142 (a) read with Article 97 of the Constitution.”
They further said the provincial government could not exercise executive authority in respect of any of the said subjects except to the extent that the federal government empowered it through statutory means.
“Now when the minimum requirement for eligibility to appear in the CET is 60 per cent marks in the aggregate in FSc and when no one can be admitted to any public or private medical or dental college without taking the CET, any apprehension that private medical and dental colleges would admit poorly qualified students to mint money may not stand the test on a rational basis. So the PMDC and UHS have to exercise regulatory controls strictly within the spheres allocated to each,” the law department said.
In the light of the detailed examination of the legal background, the health and law departments had asked the chief minister to maintain the Admission Policy (Session 2011-12) which he (the CM) had already approved in pursuance of the recommendations submitted by a committee headed by Senior Adviser Sardar Zulfiqar Khosa in August last.
In the light of that policy the UHS had conducted combined entrance test for both streams of candidates — FSc and non-FSc this year.Dawn.
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