JPMC and SMC battle: Alumni jump into the fray for college

Sindh Medical College students are treated like stepchildren by Jinnah faculty, claims alumnus.

KARACHI: A former physician involved in the cardiovascular care of Asif Ali Zardari before he became president has thrown his weight behind Sindh Medical College (SMC) over its elevation to a university. Dr Javed Suleman was one of the SMC North American and Pakistan alumni who held a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Friday.

Accusing some members of JPMC of “politicising” SMC’s elevation, Dr Javed Suleman said, “No one should have a problem with [it]; the more universities there are the more the better chances [there are] of quality education.” SMC alumnus Dr Saeed Akhtar said that “in order for SMC to achieve excellence it has to separate itself from Dow and become an independent university. We also want graduates of the standard of Harvard, Yale and Oxford.” Another former student, a laparoscopic surgeon with Ziauddin University, Dr Nusrat Anis, pitched in to claim that JPMC faculty treated SMC students as “sautela” (stepchildren). She argued that institutions such as those at Nawabshah and Chandka were elevated to universities, leaving SMC behind even though it was founded in the same year.

As the federal government hands control of health matters to the provinces, SMC stands to be elevated to a university but a merger with Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) has become a bone of contention. Students studying at SMC are enrolled under Dow University of Health Sciences that awards their degrees. However, their clinical study or practical experience is mainly gained in their third and fourth year at JPMC.

Ziauddin University gynaecologist Dr Nighat Malik argued that “just two or three people” from JPMC were against the move but otherwise the academic counsel has unanimously agreed to help with the elevation. Trustee of the SMC alumni and former secretary general of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), Qaiser Sajad, added that the SMC and Dow administrations were also supportive of the elevation as were SMC students who were “sick of not being treated right by the JPMC administration”.

But it wasn’t until the speakers were done and the journalists began asking questions that the loopholes in the alumni’s claims became embarrassingly evident. When asked if Dow was to blame for the alleged downfall in SMC’s standard, conflicting statements began to surface, which included Akhtar saying, “Dow has done a great job so far with SMC but it [SMC] deserves to be a university.” One journalist suggested opening a new university and a teaching hospital with a similar name as the SMC building was too small. Sajad responded by saying that “since there was already an existing building and faculty there is no need to look elsewhere, especially with JPMC’s convenient location (right next door).”

Alumni’s claims of “unanimous student and faculty support” for SMC also seemed to be without substance. “Almost everyone in my class opposes the elevation of SMC,” third-year student Sohaib told The Express Tribune. “The whole system will go haywire. I enrolled at Dow and that is where I wanted my degree from.”

A group of SMC students, part of the Student Action Committee, have scheduled a protest against losing their affiliation with Dow on Saturday (today).

In response to the press conference, a JPMC spokesperson said that the claims were “baseless and made with malicious intent”. The academic counsel “never, let alone unanimously, agreed to being part of the project”. The spokesperson said that the comments made in support of SMC were the “personal view of the counsel’s chairman Tariq Rafi”. On the allegations of a “stepmotherly” attitude, the spokesperson said that “a handful of people pushing the agenda of elevating SMC to a university have no idea about the student’s problems or the treatment given to them”. “These doctors come to Pakistan for a winter break and want to wreak havoc with the system,” the spokesperson added, referring to the alumni.

For its part, JPMC wants to maintain its federal status while either being elevated to a university or remaining autonomous under federal jurisdiction.

For students directly enrolled in DUHS (and not SMC), clinical study is conducted at Civil Hospital, Karachi (CHK). This, the alumni claims makes the process smoother as both institutions are part of the provincial set-up. According to the 18th amendment, health and education will be completely handed over to the provinces from the Centre and thus JPMC stands a good chance of losing its federal status and being merged into the provincial group of hospitals, something they are fighting tooth and nail to avoid.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 1^st, 2011.