President assents to PMDC bill.

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) has finally ceased to exist after President Dr Arif Alvi assented to the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) Bill 2022, making it an Act of Parliament.

In December last year, the parliament had passed the PMDC bill in a joint sitting and sent it to the President Alvi to get his nod, which suggested that the prime minister will constitute the PMDC by notifying it in the official gazette.

The council will include three members from civil society to be nominated by the Prime Minister on the recommendations of the minister concerned.

Besides, a retired high court judge or a practicing lawyer with a minimum experience of 15 years, the surgeon general of the armed forces medical service will also be the council members.

The council will have on its seats secretary National Health Services, provincial health secretaries, five licensed medical professionals, including one dentist, a chartered accountant, one philanthropist and an elected member from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan.

After a formal assent from the president, it has become an Act of parliament leading to disbandment of the existing PMC.

In October 2019, President Dr Arif Alvi had promulgated...