ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for National Health Services Saira Afzal Tarar on Thursday announced promulgation of an ordinance to run the affairs of Pakistan Medical and Dentil Council (PMDC), bringing at rest to controversies surrounding the council.

Speaking at a press conference, the minister said that under Pakistan Medical and Dentil Council (amendment) Ordinance 2014 promulgated by the President of Pakistan, a seven-member management committee will run the affairs of the council.

The members will be announced in next few days.

The PMDC has been the target of the parliamentarians for the last few months when it stopped around two dozen medical and dental colleges from taking further admissions because of different issues.

The decision of the council did not go well with some parliamentarians who run colleges and they also raised the issue in the standing committees.

Ms Tarar said the committee members would be picked from the field of medicine, law and finance.

The federal government will nominate one of the seven persons as the chairperson of the said committee, she added.

`The PMDC is the sole regulatory body for ensuring minimum standards of education in the institutions rendering services in our country and preparing our future doctors,` she said `The Pakistan Medical and Dental College Ordinance, governs the PMDC. It was amended from time to time but in the year 2012 major amendments were made in it,` she said.

`It is now a common ground that the said contro-versial election of PMDC should be set aside, an interim setup put in and the law made stringent to make PMDC a more responsible, interactive body and a true regulator.

`It was essential to bring the requisite change through an ordinance, which is the only method to pull the PMDC out of its current problems,` she said.

She said the role of the health ministry over the years has been downplayed. Since July 2012, this ministry started looking into the effectiveness of the council.

The outgoing government had amended the law in February 2013 whereby a government officer was deputed as the administrator, she said.

`It was necessary for the ministry to build a consensus amongst the professional doctors and the key stakeholders. A number of meetings were organized in this regard and as a consequence they have all been brought on one page,` she said.

President Young Doctors Association, Punjab, Dr Amir Hussain Bandesha while talking to Dawn said that the doctors` community welcomed the decision to promulgate the ordinance.

`We hope that the management committee will hold the elections of the PMDC within 90 days and genuine representatives of the doctors will be allowed to run the affairs of the body,` he said.

`We started struggle 18 months back and finally succeeded. On Friday the Lahore High Court will take up holding of the council`s election. We will inform the court about the government`s decision and hopefully the court will also order elections within 90 days,` he said.

An official of PMDC, requesting not to be identified, said they were expecting of the PML-N government to promulgate the ordinance.