The Sindh government announced on Friday that in its next session, the provincial legislature would approve a charter for granting university status to the Karachi Medical and Dental College (KMDC).
Karachi Administrator Barrister Murtaza Wahab, who is also a Sindh government spokesman and the chief minister’s adviser on law, said the college should operate independently and all decisions must be subject to the approval of the governing body.
He expressed these views while presiding over a meeting as the chairman of the governing body of the Karachi Medical and Dental College. The meeting was attended by Metropolitan Commissioner Syed Afzal Zaidi, Prof Sultan Mustafa, Financial Adviser to KMDC Imtiaz Ali Abro, Senior Director Medical Services Abdul Hameed Jamani, and governing body members Prof Qaiser Jamal, Kishwer Zehra, Shehla Raza, Prof Farid A. Dayo, Mohammad Idrees, Dr Zubeida Wasim Qazi, Dr Farhan Issa, Dr Akmal Waheed, Prof Syed Shiraz Hussain, Prof Dr Jamaluddin and Prof Dr Syed Shah. Wahab said mismanagement in the financial affairs of the college in the past would be investigated and no cash would be collected in any way. He said that in the future, fees and other dues would be collected through banks. He suggested that fees for admissions of overseas Pakistani students should also be collected in the form of a pay order.
The city administrator said admissions of students from Dubai, Sri Lanka and other countries to the college had boosted their confidence, and students who graduated from this college were now serving humanity with their full potential all over the world, which was commendable.
The governing body decided that past and present students who had college arrears would not be awarded degrees and original certificates until they had paid all the dues of the college. It was also decided that a letter would be written to Karachi University and the Higher Education Commission to suspend the degrees of students who have obtained them from the college but had not paid the fees.
The governing body also decided to set up a committee consisting of governing body members Shehla Raza, Kishwer Zehra and Dr Farhan Issa to provide scholarships to students. No scholarships would be given without approval of the committee, which would also decide to reduce the fee and give a discount, it was decided.
Wahab said he had done his best to upgrade the college to a university as promised. “The Sindh cabinet has approved to make this college a university. The Sindh Assembly will also approve its upgradation,” he added.
He remarked that poor and middle class students were studying in this medical college and it was their responsibility to provide them the best education. He said the field of medicine was very important because it was related to human health, so we have to create better “messiahs of the future”.
The governing body also approved the appointment of Dr Nargis Anjum as the principal of the college on the basis of seniority as per the decision of a court.
The Karachi administrator suggested that a meeting of the governing body be held every two months so that timely decisions could be taken. The suggestion was unanimously supported by the members of governing body.
The meeting also discussed issues related to improvement of hostels, better management of transport for students, transparency of financial affairs and timely payment of salaries of college teachers.
