Medical students protest over delay in college’s varsity status upgrade

Ordinance, pending before Sindh Assembly, expired on August 30.

KARACHI: Several students of Sindh Medical College (SMC) protested on Wednesday against the delays in elevating the college’s status to that of a university.

The students demanded that the draft bill for Sindh Jinnah Medical University, which is pending before the Sindh Assembly, should be approved in the session scheduled for today (December 6).

After the devolution of federal health facilities to the provinces, the government had decided to merge SMC and Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and grant them the status of a university in December 2010. The Jinnah hospital management was, however, not very happy with the proposal.



On June 1 this year, Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan promulgated an ordinance through which the college was granted the status of a university. JPMC ENT in-charge Dr Tariq Rafi was appointed as the first vice chancellor. The Sindh Assembly failed to pass the bill within 90 days, after which the ordinance expired on August 30. As a result, the university lost its legal status.

In the meantime, around 350 students were admitted to the MBBS programme announced by the university. Earlier, Dow University of Health Sciences took the exams of SMC students, but now the exams were supposed to be held in January at the new university.



“The students’ concerns are genuine in the face of this unnecessary delay,” the institution’s head, Dr Tariq Rafi, told The Express Tribune. “It is important that the bill is passed so that we can carry out all administrative works in a smooth manner.”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2012.