Frugal times: Around 20% of LUMHS postgraduates studying without stipends

Rules bar doctors from seeking jobs during four-year training

HYDERABAD: Around 20 per cent of the postgraduate students at Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS), Jamshoro, are pursuing their studies without stipends.

This revelation was made by LUMHS postgraduate director Prof Mohammad Hanif Ghani during a recent hearing at the Sindh High Court (SHC), which was hearing a petition filed by nine doctors who could not secure admission to the Fellowship of College of Physicians and Surgeons (FCPS) part-II programme.

In a written statement filed in court on Thursday, LUMHS registrar Dr Bux Ali Pitafi elaborated that the varsity has only 276 paid slots for postgraduate students with 138 for FCPS and as many for MS and MD students. Each of the enrolled postgraduate receives Rs42,000 as monthly stipend from the grant given by the Sindh government, he explained.

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However, due to a disproportionately high number of applications against the seats, over five dozen postgraduates are completing their residency without receiving the stipend, Ghani had told the court earlier.

According to a copy of the FCPS-II selection letter that was submitted in SHC, selected candidates are not entitled for a stipend during the four-year training period. The admission terms and conditions bar the postgraduate students from taking any full-time or part-time job in the private or semi-private sectors. Under these circumstances, those who continue training without receiving any stipend end up facing hardships.

"The issue of residency may be resolved at an early date as our future education is at risk [due to a pause in the education] and [so that] we don't spoil our precious years," said the petition filed by Dr Asma Memon, Dr Nazish Rasool, Dr Hibah, Dr Rabail Baloch, Dr Reema Akbar, Dr Afroze Hassan, Dr Urooj-un-Nisa, Dr Ramsha and Dr Kiran Naz Khan.

The four-year residency after the qualification of FCPS part I is a pre-requisite of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan for the doctors who attempt FCPS part II exams. LUMHS inducts postgraduate doctors twice a year on vacant seats.

The SHC ordered the petitioners submit their response to the registrar's reply on December 29. The registrar, who cited the relevant rules and lack of vacant paid slots, declined to admit the petitioners in the fellowship. Dr Asma Memon told The Express Tribune that through the SHC they had also demanded the Sindh government increase funding for the varsity so that more stipend recipients could be accommodated. The LUMHS registrar and postgraduate director were unavailable to confirm the number of application they receive during each induction. Some officials who did not want to be named did, however, put the number at between 300 and 400.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 18^th, 2015.