Apt adoption: Three medical institutes affiliated with PIMS varsity

ISLAMABAD:

Three medical institutes — two from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and one from federal capital — have been affiliated with Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto University (SZABU) of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS).

This was decided at the first syndicate meeting of the university held this week. The meeting was attended by the university’s vice-chancellor, parliamentarians, representatives of Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD), Higher Education Commission (HEC) and other departments.

Federal Medical and Dental College (FMDC), Nowshera Medical Complex and Mardan Medical Complex have been affiliated with SZABU-Pims. It was decided that the faculty of the university would teach students at FMDC.

The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) earlier this year barred FMDC students from taking classes because their college failed to fulfil the criteria set by the council.

To overcome the shortage of teachers, the Pims faculty will teach students at its campus established at FMDC, Chak Shehzad, and its students will come to Pims to attend clinic classes,” said the university’s VC Prof Javed Akram.

Member of National Assembly Asad Umar assured the participants that he would discuss with the K-P chief minister to affiliate the two medical institutes with SZABU to share 28% of the province’s patient load, he said.

He said 40 students recently passed out from SZABU have been deputed at the two medical complexes.

Administrative shake-up

While sharing the details of the meeting with The Express Tribune, he said Dr Khaleequz Zaman has been nominated as the chairman of the hospital management committee.

Construction of an administrative block for the college named after Jinnah within the premises of the hospital was also approved in the meeting, he said. It was decided that the administration of the university will be restructured by making all of its departments autonomous.

He said that 29 chairpersons have been appointed for various departments along with five deans for dentistry, surgical, medicine, basic medicine and nurses departments.

Pims employees who feared losing their civil service benefits after the hospital’s newly-acquired university status were given two hours to express their concerns.

“We have resolved the issue by deciding that all those clauses in the university act that conflict with their rights will be removed,” he said.

A resolution was unanimously passed by all the participants and it was decided that they would work under CADD. “The resolution will be sent to President Mamnoon Hussain for approval within 48 hours.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2014.