Physical therapy

I find it very surprising that, to date, there is no Council for Physical Therapy in Pakistan and on the other hand, government and private universities and medical colleges are admitting students in the hundreds in their five-year degree programme for Doctor of Physical Therapy. When you ask the universities or medical colleges about this, they say that this is the responsibility of the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC). When you contact senior officials in the HEC, they say there are working on this.

I know of several doctors who have qualified their DPT programmes, are practising and yet lament about there being no council from where they can get accreditation of their professional degrees. I request Dr Zafar Mirza, director, Health Systems and Services and Dr Tariq Banuri, chairperson of the HEC to kindly look into this pending issue. My mail on this subject, addressed to the minister of education, posted in February this year on the Citizen's Portal remained on the portal for a while and was subsequently deleted. A prompt resolution to this issue would be much appreciated and will bring qualified professional studying and working in the field of physical therapy at par with their peers in other medical professions.

Mrs Kaneez F Kassim

Islamabad