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  • Mar 19th, 2007
  • Comments Off on Future of 300 would-be doctors in jeopardy
Medical students and teachers have feared that the Sardar Ghulam Muhammad Mahar Medical College, Sukkur (SGMC) established in 2003 by the then Sindh Chief Minister Sardar Ali Muhammad Maher would be closed down by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PM&DC) if it failed to recruit the faculty needed for the college as per regulations of the PM&DC.

The future of about 300 students and dreams of the local poor people are at stake and the city that is known as a center of the upper Sindh will loose its only medical college, that created hopes in the hearts of poor people of about five districts of the upper Sindh that their children would now be doctors, which education was reserved only for the children of well to do families in the past.

On the other hand the Liaquat University of Medical Health Sciences has regretted to conduct the examination of SGMC's students of third year that are scheduled to be held in the months of March and April this year.

According to the rules and regulations of the PM&DC, a medical college should have about 25 professors, associate professors and assistant professors on its faculty. But presently, only 4 assistant professors, 2 associate professors and one professor are working at the SGMC.

Besides it, only two permanent posts of professors are sanctioned for it: one is of the principal and other one is of the professor of physiology, the rest faculty members work on ad hoc basis. However, today total 80 staff members are working in the college on different capacities. The administration of the SGMC has demanded at least 50 seats of the gazettes officers from the Sindh government to get recognition from the PM&DC. In this regard a request letter had also been sent to the Sindh government a quite some time ago.

The deadline of August 14th that was given by PM&DC for filling the required posts is not far away. Therefore, the Sindh government should advertise at least 50 seats of the faculty members for the college through the Public Service Commission and the process of the recruitment must be completed before August 14th, as the college should be saved from the closure.

The principal of the college Professor Asadullah Maher has said that he has invited the concerned officials of the PM&DC to visit the college and understand its importance in the upper part of Sindh.

He was of the view that the SGMC is imparting quality education to the children of the lower and lower middle class who couldn't afford education in other parts of Sindh. District Nazim Syed Nasir Hussain Shah is optimistic about the future of the college.

The Chief Minister of Sindh Arbab Ghulam Rahim will help the people of this area by sanctioning the posts needed for the college and will approach to the PM&DC to allow the college to run, the District Nazim said and added that in addition to the Medical College, Engineering and Cadet Colleges would also be opened in Sukkur to provide the higher education to the students of the area, that has been neglected since a long time.

Copyright Pakistan Press International, 2007


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