The Pakistan Medical & Dental Council refuses to recognise University of Karachi PhD degree

PMDC refuses to recognise KU's PhD degree
Karachi: The Pakistan Medical & Dental Council (PMDC) has informed the University of Karachi (KU) that it will not recognise the PhD degree awarded by the university to a medical doctor who is registered with the PMDC.

The KU is yet to reply to the letter but it intends to reject the view of the PMDC. It has advised the council to keep itself confined to its own jurisdiction without challenging the status of a premium degree-awarding university.

Registrar PMDC Dr Ahmed Nadeem Akbar has written a letter to KU Vice Chancellor Prof Pirzada Qasim, telling him that Dr Syed Mahboob Alam, medical doctor who is registered with the PMDC, has been awarded a PhD degree by the KU and the PMDC does not recognise it. A copy of the letter was sent to Prof Dr Mansoor Ahmed of the Faculty of Pharmacy, who was the PhD supervisor of Dr Alam.The vice chancellor asked Dr Mansoor Ahmed to look into the matter.

Dr Ahmed, in his office said that the letter from the PMDC was strange because it had no jurisdiction over the university. "It (PMDC) is a professional body that registers medical and dental doctors. Our university is a degree-awarding institution that is awarding BS, MBBS, MS, MPhil and PhD degrees to Arts, Science, Pharmacy and Faculty of Medicine students. It is surprising that the PMDC has chosen to object to the degree of PhD in Pharmacology awarded to Dr Alam while till now many PhD degrees to medical graduates have awarded by our university."

Dr Ahmed said that he had talked to legal experts and they were of the opinion that there was no case there and the PMDC should be told that it was not entitled to demand such things from the university. "We have prepared our reply to them (PMDC) but we have not sent it yet. Hopefully it will be sent in a few days."

In theletter sent to the KU VC, Dr Akbar of the PMDC says that "Dr Alam has applied for registration of his postgraduate qualification (Pharmacology) from University of Karachi and this qualification is not approved under the PMDC Ordinance, 1962".The letter further points out that "all the training programmes leading towards registration of additional medical/dental qualifications in terms of section 16 of PMDC Ordinance, 1962 and once notified only then the qualification acquires a status of recognised medical qualification".

KU academics are rather amused that the PMDC has actually asked the university to "apply to the PMDC on the Programme Information Programme" (PIF) that could be downloaded from PMDC official website.

"This is amusing and mindboggling. A professional body is asking us to apply for the recognition of the PhD degree that the university has awarded. We thought that Higher Education Commission (HEC) was entitled to do so. Really these are the signs of time," a professor at the Science Faculty said. Some other senior professors agreed with him. The news