HYDERABAD, Jan 12: Expressing disagreement with a recent statement of Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain in which he talked about a possible division of the province, Sindh Assembly Speaker Nisar Ahmed Khuhro said on Saturday that the London-based leader should not have made such a statement.

Mr Khuhro’s comment was sought on Mr Hussain’s statement in which he slammed the government for not holding local government elections and said that this would cause the people to demand the division of Sindh.

Speaking to newsmen after the 11th convocation at the Liaquat University of Medical & Health Sciences (LUMHS), Mr Khuhro said that the local government system was present in the whole country, but elections were not held.

“Mr Hussain should not have made such a statement,” he said.

Without naming Dr Tahirul Qadri, he added that a politician should avoid talking like dictators.

“When the entire parliament is unanimous in having an independent election commission and a smooth transition of civilian government is taking place a politician should avoid saying that he would uproot the whole system.”

Mr Khuhro said had there been regular immunisation of different diseases then diseases like polio and measles would have become eradicated.

He said that negative mindsets even attacked polio workers. “Due to poverty expectant mothers can’t even be brought to hospitals for handling of childbirth thereby missing vaccination of their child that is done immediately after delivery,” he said.

He urged parents to bring children to immunisation centres for vaccination.

He said that lady health workers should perform their duties to vaccinate newborns during their house-to-house campaign. “It needs departmental oversight, inquiry and monitoring,” he said, while urging people to create awareness at their own level.

He said that higher education was relatively expensive but medical education was still not expensive in Pakistan compared to other countries.

He hoped that every district would have cardiac care units.

He said that the government could provide only a limited number of jobs, but the private sector still offered job opportunities to doctors being graduated from universities.

He said that basic health units could be upgraded and doctors could be adjusted there. “But such doctors have to serve there for at least three years and they should avoid getting transferred to big urban centres in one year,” he added.

Earlier, speaking as the chief guest at the convocation, Mr Khuhro said that teaching hospitals must have boards of governors so that they should not be called ‘sick’ hospitals.

He was delighted to note that the LUMHS was ISO 9000 certified. “It is a feat for LUMHS”, he said while attributing its credit to LUMHS former vice chancellors who must have worked hard to get the world’s attention.

He expressed the hope that the incumbent VC would add to the LUMHS’s beauty.

He said urged the students to earn a name for themselves, their organisation and the province. “There is no limit to creation of campuses of each university. But they have to open at least two campuses,” he added.

He said that it was good that more universities were being opened in public and private sectors.

He said that there must be some problems and institutions must be lacking in equipment. “Sindh does not have to have dengue or measles cases which can be controlled within no time,” he said, adding that it was disturbing that attached hospitals of universities still needed some attention of the government for which departments had to be answerable to ensure improvement.

He said that all bureaucratic lacunas needed to be removed. “If these hospitals could not be handed over to universities then they must have boards of governors because if the university is good its attached hospital ought to be good too.”

LUMHS Vice Chancellor Prof Mashoor Alam Shah congratulated the students.

He drew the attention of the speaker that the LUMHS needed a 700-bed hospital.

He painted a bleak picture of the state of affairs of the existing attached Liaquat University Hospital (Civil Hospital Hyderabad). “The present hospital is in a shambles and cannot cater to the needs of increasing population resulting in decline in patient care. It is high time that this institution wa provided with a university hospital,” he said.