PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Friday approved a dental college for Kohat district.

The Khyber Medical University will set up the college named ‘Institute of Dental Sciences’ equipped with all the required facilities of dentistry.

The teaching institute will cater for the needs of millions of people of southern districts and areas of Fata, including Parachinar, Miramshah, Attock and Nizampur.

The approval was given at a high level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pervez Khattak here.

Provincial minister for Health Shaukat Ali Yousafzai, Khyber Medical University vice-chancellor Professor Mohammad Hafeezullah, Controller Dr Fazal Mehmood, Secretary Higher Education Farah Hamid, Special Secretary Health Akbar Khan and other relevant officials were in attendance.

The chief minister directed the authorities concerned to immediately remove all the impediments in the establishment of the college.

The meeting was informed that a faculty for imparting education up to MBBS in dentistry under KMU was already working at Kohat township, but due to non-existence of higher medical education and dental treatment and diagnostic facilities therein, patients of the southern districts were referred to teaching hospitals of Peshawar to their suffering as hospitals in the provincial capital were overburdened and Kohat tunnel often remained closed.

Mr Khattak directed to use for the purpose the building of the Frontier Education Foundation Authority situated near the existing dental faculty at Kohat township.

The CM also directed the relevant authorities to release Rs85 million for establishing a new 20-bed dental ward and arranging 75 dental chairs in the college, enabling it to be a full fledged college under PMDC rules.

The meeting was informed that besides facilities of teaching, research and treatment, the institute will have nine different specialties of dental surgery; and it will also provide additional treatment facilities to the patients of the divisional headquarters hospitals.