LAHORE:President of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), Prof Shahid Malik, has expressed concern that the PMDC-approved MD/MS degrees of approximately 77 senior consultants have still not been endorsed on their PMDC licences.
Due to this omission, these doctors are facing unnecessary difficulties regarding their professional status and service structure. According to the PMA, these consultants have obtained their postgraduate qualifications from recognised public sector institutions including King Edward Medical University (KEMU) Lahore, Services Institute of Medical Sciences (SIMS) Lahore, and the University of Health Sciences (UHS) Lahore, among others. Their respective degree programmes and training hospitals were initially approved by PMC; however, the approval was later withdrawn by PMDC in 2023 through a council decision, accompanied by a temporary amnesty policy.
Under this policy, FCPS holders were allowed licensing until 2028, while MD/MS holders were granted licensing only until 2023. As a result, nearly 70 MD/MS-qualified consultants trained in government hospitals and graduated from public universities remain in distress.
This issue became prominent after 2023 and still persists. Prof Shahid Malik further stated that despite this situation, several medical universities and CPSP continue admissions in various postgraduate programmes that do not have formal PMDC approval. If this trend continues, doctors may continue to face similar professional hardships and exploitation in the future. The PMA emphasised that the affected consultants obtained their degrees from duly recognised government institutions and therefore should not be subjected to discriminatory treatment.
