Islamabad: The Higher Education Commission has reconstituted a 23-member committee to resolve whether bioscience graduates already working in medical laboratories can be registered with the Allied Health Professionals Council (AHPC) and continue in their jobs.
According to an HEC notification issued on September 7, the committee will examine and resolve issues involving AHPC and graduates and faculty members of microbiology, biochemistry, biotechnology, genetics, molecular biology and other basic science disciplines.
The new notification supersedes an earlier order issued on August 20 and expands the committee to include representatives of HEC, AHPC, biosciences, allied health sciences and universities from across the country.
AHPC registers and licenses professionals in more than 20 allied health disciplines, including physiotherapy, Medical Laboratory Technology, radiography and imaging, surgical technology, cardiac care and rehabilitation.
The present issue is mainly related to Medical Laboratory Technology, or MLT. AHPC has linked registration in this discipline to an applicant’s primary graduation degree and has been registering candidates holding qualifications specifically in MLT.
Graduates of biochemistry, microbiology, biotechnology and related bioscience subjects have not been accepted for registration as medical laboratory technologists because their degrees are academically different from an MLT qualification.
Before AHPC registration began, however, universities, hospitals and diagnostic laboratories had employed bioscience graduates to teach MLT students and work in clinical laboratories on the basis of their education, laboratory skills and professional experience.
Many of these graduates have been performing these duties for years. The problem emerged when employers began asking them to obtain AHPC registration, which is now a legal requirement for employment and professional practice in regulated allied health disciplines.
The Allied Health Professionals Council Act bars healthcare establishments from employing a person as an allied health professional in a regulated category unless that person is registered with the council.
Affected graduates say they may lose their existing jobs because AHPC does not recognise their bioscience degrees as professional MLT qualifications despite their previous laboratory experience.
In a communication issued on November 19, 2025, AHPC clarified that registration would be granted according to an applicant’s primary graduation degree and in only one discipline. It said graduates of biochemistry, microbiology, biotechnology and other related subjects were not eligible for MLT registration.
Implementation of the directive was subsequently put on hold for consultations following the intervention of Federal Health Minister Syed Mustafa Kamal, but the eligibility issue remained unresolved.
The dispute is complicated by the fact that the AHPC Act lists clinical chemistry and biochemistry, medical microbiology, medical virology and medical molecular biology as areas falling under Medical Laboratory Technology.
HEC, however, maintains separate academic curricula for MLT, microbiology, biochemistry and biotechnology. The committee will therefore have to determine whether and under what conditions bioscience qualifications and professional laboratory experience can be accepted for AHPC registration.
Section 16 of the law says relevant basic or higher qualifications obtained before the Act came into force shall be treated as recognised, although what constitutes a relevant qualification in the present dispute remains unsettled.
The law also provided a one-year window after its commencement for people with at least five years of hands-on training and experience to seek recognition and take a licensing examination. That window has expired, leaving no clear route under this provision for bioscience graduates currently seeking MLT registration.
The committee will be headed by Prof Dr Shahid Mahmood Baig, Dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences at the Health Services Academy, Islamabad, as convener. Prof Dr Haider Darain, Dean of the Faculty of Allied Health Sciences at Khyber Medical University, Peshawar, will serve as co-convener.
Its members include Prof Dr Syed Habib Bukhari and Prof Dr Nasir Mehmood Khan of HEC; Prof Dr Shahana Urooj Kazmi; Prof Dr Kulsoom Ghias of the Aga Khan University; Prof Dr Moazur Rehman of the University of the Punjab; Prof Dr Sumaira Imran Farooqui of Ziauddin University; Prof Dr Ahmed Bilal Waqar of the University of Lahore; and Prof Dr Asghar Khan of Riphah International University.
Prof Dr Mahmood Akhtar Kayani of COMSATS University, Prof Dr Muhammad Ishtiaq Ali of Quaid-i-Azam University, Prof Dr Ayub Kakar of the University of Balochistan, Prof Dr Ibrar Khan of the University of Peshawar, Prof Dr Muhammad Nawaz of the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences and Prof Dr Yasir Waheed of NUST are also members.
The committee also includes Prof Dr Muhammad Salman of Abasyn University and Dr Usman Waheed, Associate Professor and Principal of Islamabad Medical and Dental College.
Dr Muhammad Shoaib Akhtar of the University of Calgary, Syed Irtaza Amir Hassan Kazmi of Al Jalila Children’s Specialty Hospital in Dubai, an AHPC nominee and representatives of HEC’s Academics and Quality Assurance divisions have also been included.
The notification does not prescribe a particular solution or set a deadline for the committee. Until it completes its work and HEC and AHPC agree on a policy, the registration and employment status of the affected bioscience graduates will remain unresolved.