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PMDC poll winner yet to be notified
KARACHI, Sept 12: Doctors and medical students in the city have
criticised the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) for a delay in the
notification of the name of a member elected from the constituency of registered
medical practitioners of Sindh in its official gazette.
Polls for the
election of a member each from the constituencies of registered medical
practitioners of Sindh and registered dental practitioners of Sindh and
Balochistan were held on August 6, 2007, while the election committee of the
PMDC formally declared the names of the candidates, who secured the highest
number of votes in the two categories, on Aug 7.
According to the
official results, Dr Shershah Syed from the medical practitioners' constituency
and Dr Navaid Rashid from the dental practitioners' constituency were declared
elected to the PMDC.
Dr Habibur-ur-Rehman Soomro, General-Secretary of
the Pakistan Medical Association, Central, said that despite the passage of
about five weeks, the PMDC had failed to notify the results in the case of
doctors elected to the council from Sindh.
"In view of the correspondence
between me and the PMDC, the federal health ministry and other key figures in
the federal government, I assume that the delay was being made for no valid
reason," said Dr Soomro, adding that dillydallying tactics were being applied
for the sake of some vested interests.
When contacted, a Karachi-based
senior office-bearer of the PMDC said that the notification of the names of the
Sindh-based successful candidates had been suspended in view of the fact that
one of the candidates had disputed the results given by the PMDC election
committee at Karachi on Aug 7.
Polling problems
Interviews
revealed that one of the contesting doctors had approached the office of the
director-general of health in Islamabad, disputing the results on the plea that
the "election committee failed to include the ballots which were posted about
two years back (2005) when the elections in question were held, but were
postponed at some later stage and finally termed invalid."
"Polls were
again held after a period of over two years in Aug 2007, in the light of a court
directive," said a doctor privy to the elections.
"The polling was
conducted at nine centres throughout the province, in addition to ballots
received through post afresh under the new schedule of examinations. The
candidates of the elections in question were the same as the elections of 2005,"
added the doctor.
It was learnt that during the process of centralised
counting of votes that numbered about 2,500 -- including the postal ballots --
one of the candidates from outside Karachi had requested the election committee
to also count the postal ballots which were received in 2005.
However,
the election committee did not approve the plea and considered the votes that
were cast under the new schedule only and issued the results officially, said a
source.
In the absence of any notification of Dr Shershah Syed's name in
the PMDC gazette, different doctors' forums, including the College of Family
Medicine Pakistan, PMA, and young medical graduates of the city have expressed
their concern over the issue and demanded of the government as well as the
president and the prime minister to intervene and take notice of all such
elements who want to create a misunderstanding between the government and
medical professionals.
"It is a known fact that Dr Shershah Syed won the
election and the same was declared by the election supervising committee of the
PMDC. The copy was received by candidates who contested the election. Now some
vested interests want to delay the announcement regarding Dr Shershah," said Dr
Aziz Tank, President of the CFMP.
"The assistant director-general of
health has sent me a letter from Islamabad recently for the purpose of
information, without indicating what he or the PMDC's secretary is going to do
next," said Dr Soomro.
"Objections from all sides have already been
addressed by the PMDC committee under the rules and as such the council has got
no valid reason to delay the notification of the names of Dr Shershah and Dr
Navaid as elected members to the council," he added. Dawn
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| Education News | | Updated: 25 May, 2012 |
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