In a move that is likely to deal a huge blow to remittances received by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia has, followed by a number of other Gulf nations, de-recognised postgraduate medical degrees from Pakistan, that is the Master of Surgery (MS) and Doctor of Medicine (MD) degrees, reports Dawn.

The other Gulf countries which have moved to reject these degrees from Pakistan are the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain. Saudi Arabia has begun sacking large numbers of Pakistani doctors and many have been told to await deportation back to Pakistan.

Interestingly, the same post-graduate degrees from India, Egypt, Sudan and Bangladesh are all recognised by Saudi Arabia.

Some in Pakistan have blamed the country’s own College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP) for the setback. CPSP is a regulatory institute for post-graduate medical education in Pakistan.

Association of University Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan spokesperson, Dr Asad Noor Mirza claimed that CPSP delegations to Saudi Arabia had persuaded the latter’s medical regulatory body Saudi Commission for Health Specialties (SCHS) to only allow Pakistani doctors with the Fellow of College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (FCPS) diploma to work there.

CPSP officials reportedly told SCHS that apart from FCPS, there was no training based post-graduate medical course in Pakistan apart from FCPS. CPSP would stand to benefit from other post-graduate degrees being de-recognised since it has a monopoly on FCPS.