DERA GHAZI KHAN: The Ghazi University and its affiliated Ghazi Khan Medical College face an alarming delay in recognition by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), respectively.

Lanched in 2010 at the Quaid-i-Azam Medical College, Bahawalpur, the GKMC was shifted to an incomplete building here in January 2012. When a PMDC team visited the college for evaluation, it did not give favourable marks and asked its head to hire a professor within two weeks.

When this correspondent contacted college principal Prof Dr Shamim, he said the institute was facing multiple problems since its inception. It was still housed in an incomplete building, lawns were not landscaped and were without a source of irrigation. It faced shortage of faculty and was affiliated to Ghazi University instead of the University of Health Sciences (UHS).

Dr Shamim said despite fulfilling the council’s requirements, they were asked to wait for a decision of the PMDC executive committee. Later, the Ministry of Health and PMDC got into litigation.

Commenting on the affiliation with the Ghazi University instead of the UHS, he said it was unusual and only a provincial assembly decision could change it. He said under the university act the medical college was a component of the university, which raised a lot of questions about financial affairs, service structure and various other issues. Doctors and professors did not want to work here on a permanent basis and if the college was affiliated with the UHS, they could attract professionals.

The principal maintained the case for recognition and recommendation had been submitted to the PMDC, which was delaying it. He questioned how the first batch would graduate from the college in 2015 without recognition and full faculty, as out of the sanctioned seats of 17 there were only two professors in the college.

He said the health department did not pay heed to several of their demands, including appointment of substitutes to transferred professors.

The Ghazi University has no vice chancellor (VC) as the Dera commissioner has been given additional charge of the VC. The university was getting contingency funds that created problems in paying salaries. It has no building of its own. There is a need to establish new girls and boys hostels at the university. Students of the merged campuses of University of Agriculture, Faisalabad (UAF), and Bahauddin Zakaria University (BZU) had been on strike for several months as they wanted to get degrees from the institutions they were registered with. They had also filed a petition in court.

Sources told Dawn the project director for construction of a new building for the university, who had been appointed in June, had not initiated the plan. The office of the project director did not even have a bank account which was necessary for depositing funds and their disbursement. When this correspondent contacted Project Director Dr Iqbal Changwani, he refused to give his side of the story. Sources said 24 more PHDs were required to grant approval to the Ghazi University.

Registrar Dr Najeeb said the university comprised a post-graduate college, merged UAF and a campus of BZU and Ghazi Khan Medical College. He claimed with 6,000 students and 168 faculty members, including PhDs, the future of the university was bright.

He also claimed the case for recognition had been submitted to the HEC for approval, adding the university required at least 20 PhDs to fulfill the HEC requirements.

Published in Dawn, November 27th , 2014