Sindh govt wants to share responsibility

CM inaugurates three-day dentistry congress at the Karachi Expo Centre.

KARACHI: “The provincial government is willing to hand over public hospitals to the private sector,” said Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah at the inauguration ceremony of the three-day First Asian Congress on Dental Education and Research held at the Expo Centre, Karachi on Friday.

Shah said that the Sindh government also wants to build more hospitals under the public-private partnership. While people in most of the rural areas still lack health facilities, the present government has worked hard to restart 90 per cent of the basic health units in the province.

Referring to the large number of female participants at the ceremony, he said that the impression that Pakistani women are discouraged to work in the education and health sectors is wrong. More and more women are becoming doctors and they would be in the forefront very soon. There are more women in the country anyways and there will soon be a day when females would be occupying the main seats in both the education and health sectors, he added.

Earlier, the president of the congress, Prof Mehmood Haider, said that at present, 785 students are studying dentistry, and out of 32 dental colleges, 12 are in Sindh.

He urged the government support dental education. Around 1,000 delegates are attending the congress while at least 100 speakers will talk on various issues and topics during the three-day deliberations.

The chief minister gave mementoes to the vice-chancellors of Dow Medical University, Karachi, the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences and the Ziauddin University. Meanwhile, Prof Haider presented a shield to the CM.

Shah also inaugurated the exhibition of the latest equipment in dentistry and visited the stalls there.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 19^th, 2011.