Medical and Dental Degrees Ordinance, 1982

The Medical and Dental Degrees Ordinance, 1982 controls who is legally allowed to grant medical and dental qualifications in Pakistan, replacing the earlier Medical Degrees Act, 1916. Section 2 defines the "scientific Medical and Dental System" as covering allopathic medicine, obstetrics, surgery, and dentistry — explicitly excluding homoeopathic, ayurvedic, and unani medicine, which are governed separately.

Section 3 restricts the right to confer degrees, diplomas, licences, or certificates implying qualification to practise this scientific system to the bodies listed in the Schedule — every university established by a Federal or Provincial Act, and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan — plus any other body the Federal or a Provincial Government specifically authorises by notification. Section 4 bars anyone else from issuing such qualifications.

Section 5 sets a serious penalty for unauthorised conferment: rigorous imprisonment of not less than one year and not more than five years, plus a fine up to fifty thousand rupees (or up to twenty-five thousand rupees for a knowing, willing member of an offending association). Section 6 separately targets individuals who falsely claim to hold such a qualification (whether by title, description, or misleading wording), carrying the same one-to-five-year imprisonment range and a fine up to fifty thousand rupees — though this doesn't catch someone using a legitimate title or qualification earned in a field other than medicine.

Section 7 requires prosecutions to be based on a complaint from the Secretary of the Medical and Dental Council (or someone they authorise), and Section 8 bars trial below a first-class Magistrate. Section 9, notably, makes all offences under the Ordinance bailable despite the significant prison terms involved. Section 10 repeals the earlier Medical Degrees Act, 1916.