Moalims

ISLAMABAD: Medical students, who graduated from Cuba under a government scholarship programme, demonstrated outside the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) protesting against the non-issuance of practicing certificates in the country.

“We haven been sitting idle for the past seven months and have only received mere verbal assurances from PMDC,” Dr Muhammad Abdullah, who was leading the protestors said.

Pakistan to offer 100 scholarships to Cuba

Around 950 medical students have graduated from Cuba, since 2007. The scholarships were jointly funded by both the Pakistan and Cuban government. The placards held by the participants read that the Pakistani government has spent around Rs2 billion for in the education programme while eight billion have been spent by the Cuban government.

The students were of the view that as per their contract with the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and PMDC, after a year’s house job (medical practice) in Cuba they (students) will be exempted to do so in Pakistan.

The seven years scholarship included a year of learning Spanish, five years of medical education and another year of house job in Cuba. “The PMDC remained completely onboard with HEC during planning and execution of the project,” said a letter from the HEC chairperson to PMDC on October 7.

The same letter, also stated that PMDC’s precondition for issuance of permanent registration is “neither realistic nor practicable and may yield unnecessary embarrassment equally to the students, families and the government.” The HEC requested PMDC to abide by the agreements made in 2012 the terms of which were even agreed by the Cuban government.

Dr Hafiz Shoaib, a graduate, added that they passed all the examinations in Pakistan and PMDC was deliberately delaying the issuance of Registered Medical Certificate (RMC) for them.

“The PMDC has collected documents from all the graduates and has yet to return. They are neither returning the documents back nor are making any decision,” said another graduate Imran Shahzad said.

The students held placards with “don’t retreat from your promises”, “give us our right” inscribed on them. They also chanted slogans against PMDC and HEC.

From ‘doctor brides’ to practicing physicians

A PMDC official said that they were still deciding on the matter and a meeting would be held on Tuesday (today) in this regard. “Hopefully we will reach a middle path,” the official added. The meeting was to held on Thursday however, was delayed due to an incomplete quorum.

Another official stated that the exemption was given by the previous medical council while the new body does not own the decision. “They think they should do a house job as per local practices which will be beneficial for them,” he explained.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 24th, 2015.