39th anniversary: Alumni and Shehla Raza pledge to upgrade SMC to university

The college was founded in 1973 and comes under the DUHS umbrella.


Our Correspondent April 14, 2012

KARACHI:


Ever since Sindh Medical College was formed in 1973, it has played second fiddle to Dow Medical College. But that might change now.


Applause erupted from around 800 students and alumni when the deputy speaker for the Sindh Assembly, Shehla Raza, who also organised the event, announced that SMC will be upgraded to a university. She promised to present the proposal before the assembly if the management prepared it and sent it to her before the budget.

People had gathered to celebrate the college’s 39th anniversary on Saturday with a 40-pound cake iced with the letters SMC.

Although the college comes under the umbrella of Dow University of Medical and Health Sciences, for some reason or the other it has always been held second to DMC.

Another well-known alumnus of SMC, Dr Farooq Sattar was also present on the occasion with the health secretary, Hashim Raza Zaidi. Both graduated in 1986.

Dr Sameer Qureshi, an associate ENT professor at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and the convener of the SMC’s alumni trust, said that the management wanted to create ‘Jinnah Sindh University of Health Sciences’ by incorporating SMC, JPMC, the National Institute of Child Health and National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases into a single teaching hospital. He said that the alumni committee was planning to forward the proposal to Raza by next week. “We have a charter,” he said. “But we plan to take all stakeholders on board and resolve any conflicting issues first.”

A student aired her anger about being held second to Dow graduates. “We are not allowed to have any societies, publish our own magazine as in Dow,” he said. “Even events, such as the Olympics and bake sale, are organised by DMC and we are treated as outsiders.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 15th, 2012.

COMMENTS (1)

Dr Masood Badvi | 11 years ago | Reply Thanks to Allah Sain & SMC I am proud to the SMCain and helping the poor community at Shikarpur by all means and feel honored to be SMCain.
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