KHAIRPUR: Following in the footsteps of Pakistan Peoples Party’s leader Benazir Bhutto, the Sindh government has established nine more universities and provided jobs to countless people in Sindh in recent years.

This was stated by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah during a briefing given to him on the Khairpur medical college, being established in his hometown, in the conference hall of the institution on Sunday night.

Mr Shah said that Ms Bhutto had set two topmost goals for her party to achieve: ‘education for all’ and ‘employment for all’. The goals were the basic agenda of the PPP manifesto, he said.

He noted that there were only three public universities in Sindh when the PPP came to power and nine more had been added to the number during its term.

“The Khairpur medical college will prove to be one of the best in the province. It will be given a unique name. The institution is a gift from the PPP to the people of Khairpur and Sindh,” he said.

He held out the assurance that the newly-appointed faculty and other employees of the college would be regularised soon.

The chief minister said that the PPP government had always accorded high priority to the education and health sectors and focused on ensuring quality education and jobs for everyone without any discrimination.

Highlighting achievements by law enforcement agencies through the ongoing operation against terrorists and criminals in Karachi, he said targeted killing, kidnapping for ransom and incidents of serious nature had registered a marked decline. As much improvement had been noted in other parts of Sindh where police had succeeded in establishing the government’s writ, he said.

He asked Dr Suresh Kumar, the project director of the under-construction hospital to be affiliated to the college, to ensure availability of modern machinery and facilities at the hospital, besides completion of the construction work by December this year.

Principal Prof Dr Mashoor Alam Shah informed the chief minister that 165 of the nearly 1,000 forms obtained for admission to the college had already been submitted and most of the candidates were women. He said that approval for the allotment of 28 acres, in addition to the 1.65 acres housing the college building, had been obtained for various departments and hostel. He urged the chief minister to ensure provision of lab appliances and construction of a residential colony for the faculty near the hospital.

Sukkur Commissioner Moham­med Abbas Baloch also spoke.

Later, the chief minister went round various departments, classrooms and hostel site.

Khairpur Deputy Commissioner Muna­wwar Mithiani, DHO Dr Sadar­u­ddin Siddiqui and Dr Ghulam Jaffar Soomro accompanied Mr Shah.

The chief minister also announced a grant of Rs1.5 million for a Shah Abdul Latif University (Salu) student, Qurban Ali Soomro, for his liver transplantation. His friends and Salu students, teachers and citizens have contributed to a fund-raiser and also collected donations from other citizens to meet the financial requirement.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2015

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