ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Overseas Employment Promoters Association (POEPA) protested Monday that the GCC-approved medical centres are exploiting consumers in the name of medical tests of poor overseas Pakistani workers.

In a statement issued here on Monday, the POEPA senior vice chairman Capt Naseem Akhtar (retd), Vice Chairman Makail Bangush and Khalid Javed said that a Gulf-Cooperation Council, Approved Medical Centres Association (GAMCA), is administratively managing 45 medical centres in Pakistan who are departing to Saudi Arabia. They have made compulsory for Pakistani workers to conduct the medical test from its approved centres before going to Saudi Arabia. They said that the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) had also imposed hefty fine on these medical centers back in 2012; however, they got stay from court.

The vice chairman also requested the government especially the CCP to pursue case in the court and resume investigations of these centers as medical centers which are allegedly involved in cartelization.

The POEPA representatives said that these medical centres are just charging huge fees from poor workers as their certificates are not being accepted in the Gulf countries, this certificate is only for departure.

The medical centres are charging Rs 9,000 for each test, while an additional amount of Rs 2,000 is being charged separately in the name of registration; whereas, other laboratories are charging half fee for these tests, they added. These medical centres neither submit the return nor pay the tax, so they requested the Pakistani government to establish a regulatory authority to check the GCC-approved medical centres.

They also requested Muhammad Bin Suleman, who is the Ambassador of Pakistanis in KSA, to issue directions to the Saudi Embassy in Pakistan to manage the matters of medical test. They demanded that the Pakistani government in league with the Saudi government should find out some mutually-agreed solution to the problems.—PR

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021