AWKU pharmacy students fret on future

Urge K-P governor to intervene as varsity officials claim there is no issue of registration

PESHAWAR: Around 250 students of the pharmacy department of the Abdul Wali Khan University (AWKU) in Mardan have urged the provincial governor — who is also the chancellor of the varsity — to take notice of how their department is not recognized by the apex pharmacy body of the country.

AWKUM had been set up in Mardan in 2009 in the Mardan post-graduate college building. Over time it grew to have six faculties. However, its pharmacy department is not recognised by the Pharmacy Council of Pakistan (PCP), the apex pharmacological body of the country.

The PCP’s official list, though, only notes that the varsity has a no-objection certificate to start Pharm-D academic programmes for 50 students. But it is omitted from the list of varsities offering training programmes for Pharm-B programmes or from the list of institutions offering degree programmes for registration in register ’A’.



A group of pharmacy students of the varsity told The Express Tribune on the condition of anonymity, for fear of reprisals, that they had approached the varsity’s Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Khurshid Khan and other relevant authorities of the varsity in this regards.

However, the students said that they only saw delaying tactics and false hopes from the varsity administration.

They complained that after having submitted substantial fees and toiling away for the past five years, they were now facing the prospect of having nothing to show for their efforts.

With their degrees not verified, students cried that they face the prospect of not being able to apply for or get jobs in their field.



Asked why the department — and thus their degrees — were not recognized by the PCP, students suggested that it could be due to the absence of the requisite standards in the department which the council demands any department hopeful of recognition maintain.

Hence, they opined, this could be the reason why representatives of the council have yet to visit the varsity and take a closer look at the department and recognize it.

In this regards, students suggested that the department lacks proper facilities, with the laboratory still without standard equipment.

They blamed the department’s staff for also trying to keep students as far away from equipment-intensive sectors owing to lack of funds — even though the varsity continues to charge them for in the fees collected.

Student of the pharmacy department urged the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) governor, who is also the chancellor of the varsity to take notice of the issue and direct the relevant authorities to resolve the issue on a priority base and save the future of students.

Meanwhile, AWKUM Deputy Register Tariq Mehmud told The Express Tribune that members of PCP members have visited the varsity and that there was no issue of registration.

Despite repeated attempts, the dean of the pharmacy department, Prof Dr Sultan Ayaz, could not be reached for comments.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 3^rd, 2018.