LAHORE: In a bid to produce better qualified and skilled postgraduates, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has approved a summary to establish two new medical universities, one each at Multan and Rawalpindi.

The summary was sent to the chief minister some months back and the chief minister approved it a couple of days ago, an official close to the information told Dawn on Friday.

With their establishment, the number of medical universities in the province will rise to five as Lahore already houses three such institutions -- University of Health Sciences, King Edward Medical University and Fatima Jinnah Medical University.The official said the development came after senior medics strongly recommended to the government to set up more medical universities in Punjab, since it was lagging behind in this race in the region.

They further told the government that Punjab had been facing acute dearth of highly qualified health professionals for some decades and only the new universities could address this issue.

After approval of the summary, the official said, the health department would start work to draft law for the new medical universities.

Another summary shall be sent soon to the chief minister to forward the same to the cabinet committee for approval from the Punjab Assembly.

He said according to the present arrangement, the Nishtar Medical College, Multan, shall be the constituent college of the proposed university.

Similarly, the official said, the Rawalpindi Medical College shall be the constituent college of the university being established there.

Since the existing medical education institutions have been focusing on clinical side and towards technical skills to produce graduates only, the new universities would help enhance research and knowledge to meeting the growing needs of the world, the official said.

Students from the upper and south Punjab would be the beneficiary after the establishment of Rawalpindi and Multan medical universities.

Young medics of the Nishtar Medical College, Multan, had also launched a drive to get the college upgraded into a full-fledged medical university.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2017