Expressing displeasure with the federal government over its failure to revive the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday ordered jailing the health secretary for six months if the building was not opened in an hour.
PMDC — a statutory regulatory authority that maintained the official register of medical and dental practitioners in Pakistan — was in October last year dissolved and replaced by the Pakistan Medical Commission after the president signed the Pakistan Medical Commission Ordinance 2019 for the regulation of the medical profession.
On February 11, the IHC declared the federal government’s decision to dissolve the PMDC null and void. The court also issued contempt notices to the federal government and health department for not implementing its orders.
According to SAMAA, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani resumed hearing the contempt case on Monday. He said the PMDC should be made functional today. The authorities should break the lock on its building and make its registrar sit there. “A report should be submitted to the court in one hour,” the judge said.
The health secretary will be sent to jail for six months if the building is not opened in an hour, he remarked. “I have given you three dates already and you haven’t done anything.”
Not implementing court’s orders is contempt, the judge remarked. “This is a slap on the court’s face.” Such behaviour does not suit the federal government, said Justice Kayani, adding that the government should be ashamed.
The court also asked if PMDC employees were getting their salaries or not. The lawyer of the employees said that the they haven’t been paid in over five months.
TOP COURT AGAINST RELEASE OF PRISONERS AMID COVID-19 OUTBREAK:
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court (SC) has refrained high courts and all governments to pass any orders regarding the release of prisoners amid the coronavirus outbreak.
According to journalist Hasnaat Malik, the top court has also suspended the implementation of IHC orders regarding release of under-trial prisoners.
Punjab had last week decided to let go of almost 20,000 of its 46,000 prisoners amid the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis as jails in Pakistan remain overcrowded.
Jail superintendents, who had reached out to the courts to approve the bail of prisoners handed sentences of seven years or less, had reportedly taken the step in light of special instructions.
Bail requests were also filed for prisoners jailed for petty crimes, as well as the elderly, or criminals over 60 years of age.
The development had come days after IHC Chief Justice (CJ) Athar Minullah had ordered for bails to be issued for prisoners facing trial for minor crimes in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. He had made the decision while hearing a case of 1,362 incarcerated prisoners.
The top IHC judge had noted how prisons in Pakistan were in dire straits and that the situation would get out of control if any prisoner got infected.
