Islamabad - Sub Committee of the Senate on National Health Services (NHS) has called for giving equal representation to all provinces in the National Homeopathy Council (NHC) aimed at avoiding nepotism.

The meeting was held in the chair of Senator Kalsoom Parveen which was also attended by Senator Ghous Muhammad Khan Niazi and Senator Dr Ashok Kumar.

The meeting discussed a single point agenda to investigate the reasons of delay in the election of National Council for Homeopathy and correction of names and addresses of the doctors registered with council on its website.

Representative Homeopathy association Amanullah Bismil in a detail briefing to the committee said that due to gross irregularities in the available data of homeopathy colleges and doctors, the transparent elections are not possible.

The government on April 28 this year had appointed administrator of the NHC after the five-year tenure of the previous chairman ended.

The administrator was appointed to support the council for holding elections but he faced severe opposition. The council did not get a Returning Officer to work for holding elections.

Amanullah Bismil urged the committee to de-notify the current examining body of NCH and constitute a five-member impartial committee to work with the administrator of NCH.

He also informed the committee that there is no impartial set-up to monitor the homeopathic examination system so it should be transferred to universities.

He briefed the meeting that last five years data of new registration and renewals must be purified and made public through District Health Officers (DHO) countrywide to enable all homeopaths to confirm the correctness of their names, father names, ID numbers and addresses.

It is required to separate the voter lists of colleges, teachers and practitioners.

Convener Committee Senator Kalsoom Parveen said that the NCH is facing number of problems since long but no improvement has been observed in its matter so far. She directed the ministry to set Terms of References (TORs) and verify it from the board before elections.

She also directed to verify the data to ensure transparency in the elections and appoint an RO as soon as possible.

She also stressed the need for giving equal representation to all provinces in the council to avoid impression of nepotism in the election. “The post of the president of the council must be given in rotation to every province,” she said.

The convener also directed the officials to scrutinize the data for days before the election and ensure that every voter must cast vote with his/her original National Identity Card (NIC).

She also allowed the administrator NCH to hold inspection of the colleges till the election of new council.

The officials NCH informed the chair that the election date has been announced and the RO will be appointed in next few days as names have been forwarded to minister of state for NHS for approval.

NHS officials endorsed the suggestion of holding examination through universities instead of council itself.

Administrator NCH Shakeel informed the committee that registration and renewal is being conducted at the NCH on manual typewriter while the names and addresses are also being corrected in the record.

The sub-committee also directed the NHS to provide the NCH additional staff to conduct elections.

rahul basharat