Punjab pulls support for PM’s medical college in Multan

Punjab govt says no money after the floods to back Gilani's promise to build a medical college.

LAHORE: The Punjab government has told Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani that it cannot afford to back him in his promise to build a medical college for women in Multan, The Express Tribune has learnt.

On May 4, 2008, Gillani pledged during a speech in Multan that a medical college only for women would be built there. That same year at the convocation ceremony of Allama Iqbal Medical College, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif voiced support for the project, saying it would benefit girls from conservative families in South Punjab, interior Sindh and Balochistan whose parents did not want them to attend coeducation institutions.

Last week, the prime minister travelled to Multan to inaugurate several projects, including the Gillani Law College and Girls Hostel at Bahauddin Zakariya University, that he had announced in his speech two years ago.

Sources in the Health Department said that the prime minister later wrote to the Punjab government demanding an update on the status of the women’s medical college. The Health Department responded with its own letter a few days ago, telling the prime minister that the Punjab government could not afford to build the college.

The letter states that when the prime minister announced the college, it was decided that the Centre and Punjab would split the cost of the project fifty-fifty. But the federal government had yet to allocate any money in the Public Sector Development Programme for the medical college, the letter said. Further, it added, the Punjab government could not afford even half the cost owing to the catastrophic floods that recently devastated the province. The Punjab government had already allocated Rs12 billion for four other medical colleges, it said. The letter revealed that the expected cost of the college in Multan would be Rs 6 billion.The Health Department sources said that Sharif had discussed the matter with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz office bearers in South Punjab.

They had decided that the prime minister should not be allowed to inaugurate a project built by the Punjab government.

The sources said that Gillani had invited Sharif to come along for the project inaugurations in Multan last week, but the chief minister had refused. Gillani had wanted Sharif to announce that Nishtar Medical College in Multan would be granted university status, but Sharif had refused to do this, said the sources.

They said that Sharif had told Gillani that the Punjab had one university that dealt with the affairs of medical colleges – the University of Health Sciences – and that was enough.

Health Secretary Fawad Hassan Fawad told The Express Tribune that the Punjab government had suggested to the federal government that it drop the project because “studies show that 70 per cent of women who get MBBS degrees do not go on to practice medicine”.

He said that if the prime minister insisted, the Punjab government would honour his wishes, but only after the federal government allocates funds for the project in the development budget.

Published in The Express Triune, October 31^st, 2010.