PA passes PMTI (Amendment) Bill

LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly passed the Punjab Medical Teaching Institutions (Amendment) Bill 2019 on Wednesday, putting all government hospitals under the control of autonomous bodies called the Policy Boards and allowing itself the role of only providing limited funds to the Policy Boards and their accountability.

The session chaired by Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi maintained an unusual quorum to hurriedly pass the bill, rejecting all amendments by the opposition and also rejecting the requests to delay the bill further to reach consensus with the protesting bodies of doctors, paramedical staff and other employees by removing their concerns. The opposition warned that the controversial legislation would increase the ongoing protests by doctors and paramedics, accusing that the legislation was aimed at practically privatizing government hospitals to benefit the capitalists corporate and depriving the poor of cheap medical care. They asked why the PTI government was bringing a system in Punjab that has already failed badly in KP, requesting the chair to intervene to defer this vitally important legislation for bringing harmony and consensus among all stakeholders for the sake of maintaining peace in the health sector. They wondered why Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashed was allowing this cruel move to become law since she used to protest at the forefront against the PML-N government putting hospitals under the BoGs. After the passage of the PMTI Bill, the House also passed the Punjab Agricultural Marketing Regulatory Authority (Amendment) Bill 2019 with more haste, as the speaker put it for vote ignoring the protests by the opposition members that it was not even approved by the standing committee. The opposition members stood from their chairs and gathered in front of the speaker’s dais, yelling that the bill was not even sent to the relevant standing committee, but the speaker ignored their shouting and announced the passage of the bill. He then adjourned the session for next day.

The Act allows constitution of a Provincial Policy Board comprising seven members to oversee and regulate the functioning of Medical Teaching Institutions (MTIs). The members will not be government officers, and will be selected on the recommendation of Search and Nomination Committee for three years’ contract and the chairperson will be elected. The board will ensure minimum service delivery standard, keep and maintain e-record of medical services, updated e-inventories, audit of medical and other records and recommend policies for improvement of MTIs. It will meet thrice a year in addition to an annual meeting.

The law will constitute the Board of Governors (BoGs) for each MTI to control and supervise the functioning of MTIs besides having hire and fire powers. The BoG, assisted by the secretary of the board will comprise up to seven members. The Management Committee will comprise hospital director, medical director, nursing director, finance director and two persons nominated by the board on the recommendation of the dean. The MTI being a constituent college is subject to the Universities Act, the vice chancellor of the university will head the Management Committee with the dean acting as the deputy-head. Under the MTI Act, doctors and paramedical staff will be appointed on a double salary package, and doctors will be allowed to conduct private practices in hospitals. However, the doctors practicing outside the hospital will have to forego professional medical allowances from the salary package.

The opposition members including Waris Kallu, Khwaja Salman Rafiq, Dr Mazhar Iqbal, Khalil Tahir Sindhu, Bilal Farooq Tarar and others participated in the debates for their amendments to the PMTI Bill and protested against Law Minister Raja Basharat’s statement that the standing committee had already approved the draft bill unanimously. The opposition members put down dissenting notes on every clause and warned the government of violent fallout but it was strange that the law minister was misleading the House on the issue.

Waris Kallu said the PMTI bill was against the fundamental rights and Article 9 of the Constitution of Pakistan that guarantees protection of life and means of livelihood, employment for every citizen. He said the previous governments constituted boards of governors in government hospitals, but gave choice to doctors and paramedics for opting to other jobs, but this legislation had given no choice to them. Khwaja Salman Rafiq said the high court ordered the government to negotiate consensus with stakeholders, but the government was adamant not to entertain the demands of doctors and paramedics. He recalled that this law badly deteriorated the healthcare system in KP where no new hospital was built but the services of existing hospitals were badly destroyed. He demanded that the chief minister become the controlling authority of MTIs, warning that the merger of teaching staff appointed under the Public Service Commission into the MTIs would create frustration and promotion gap for doctors and professors. He said the PTI which came into power with the promise of providing ten million jobs and five million houses was bent upon snatching jobs from the vitally important health sector.

Dr Mazhar Iqbal of the PML-N said the law minister was not even present at the meeting of the Standing Committee on Health where the draft law was discussed, adding that the minister was misleading the House by claiming it was unanimously passed by the committee. He said the PML-N government realized its mistake of constituting board of governors for public sector hospitals, and kept appointing doctors through Public Service Commission as initial compensation. He said he was among those who criticized the BoGs during the previous government, and claimed that the PMTI Bill would prove to be the last nail in the coffin of healthcare in the province. He said instead of increasing budget for hospitals, the government was shirking away from its duty of providing cheap healthcare to people and throwing the poor before the cruel capitalists and corporations. He wondered why Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashed was allowing such a cruelty with her profession despite the fact that she used to be at the fore front of protests staged during the previous government against the creating of BoGs. He alleged that Dr Yasmin Rashed was doing this unwillingly, only on the pressure from Prime Minister Imran Khan who was bent upon subjecting Punjab hospitals to the same failed experiment he had done with KP. He noted that similar experiment was done in case of Punjab Institute of Cardiology and Sheikh Zayed Hospital where not a single surgery was done for poor or common patients, and a heavy amount was being charged from patients.

The law minister said the bill was not against Article 9 of the Constitution and termed all the apprehensions and allegations of the opposition baseless. He said if the health services of government hospitals under previous government were good as claimed by the opposition members, why the PML-N could not build a single hospital where its president Nawaz Sharif could have medical treatment.

Khalil Tahir Sindhu challenged Law Minister Raja Basharat to prove that the PML-N government stopped doctors’ appointments through Public Service Commission, adding that he would resign if it was proved.

The House offered Fateha for the departed soul of Wing Commander Nauman Akram who embraced martyrdom earlier in the day when his aircraft crashed while performing exercises in Islamabad for the upcoming air show on March 23. The House also offered Fateha for the departed souls of the father of Yasir Sindhu MPA, and the aunt of Momina Waheed MPA.