SZABMU Bill: Senate panel wants draft revised

Minister assures that proposed university would not be named after Bhutto.

ISLAMABAD:

Chairperson of the Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat and Capital Administration and Development (CAD), on Friday, directed the CAD ministry to incorporate senators’ recommendations in the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU) Bill, 2013, and consult with representatives from regulatory bodies, before presenting an amended draft on March 4.

Senators demanded their recommendations be incorporated in the bill, particularly an amendment to reverse the requirement that all medical colleges and health institutions in the Islamabad Capital Territory apply for affiliation with the new medical university to be set up at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims). Senator Kalsoom Parveen asked the CAD minister to take representatives of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) on board before revising the bill.

PML-Q Senator Kamil Ali Agha said if Senate passed the bill without introducing amendments, private medical colleges would cease to fall under the purview of the HEC and PMDC during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat and Capital Administration and Development (CAD) on Friday.

PPP Senator Raza Rabbani called upon committee members to revisit the rules on the appointment of the vice chancellor and the mandate of the medical university. Senators Ishaq Dar and Rabbani presented recommendations for incorporation in the original bill.

CAD Minister Nazar Gondal assured the committe that the government would not name the university after late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. The new medical university would be empowered to confer degrees, diplomas, certificates and other academic distinctions. The faculty of medicine Quaid-e-Azam University will be appointed at SZABMU and all its students will be transferred to the new university in six months.

Representatives of private medical universities and colleges informed the minister that it would be mandatory for their institutions to affiliate with the new medical university according to the bill. They demanded the provision be revised and private medical institutions be given the choice to affiliate with any forum.

The Senate on February 26 had referred the bill to the Senate Standing Committee on CAD after legislators belonging to the PML-N and MQM protested over some provisions of the bill. The NA has already passed the bill.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 2^nd, 2013.