MARDAN: Bacha Khan Medical College (BKMC) awarded degrees to 450 students during its second convocation held here on Saturday.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Ghulam Ali was the chief guest.

Special assistant to caretaker chief minister on health Prof Riaz Anwar and Khyber Medical University Vice-Chancellor Prof Ziaul Haq were the guests of honour.

The convocation was arranged for five batches each of MBBS and Bachelor of Dentistry. As many as 53 students received gold medals for their good academic performance.

Governor Ghulam Ali, who is also the chancellor of public sector universities in the province, congratulated the graduates and their parents on accomplishing the feat.

He said the number of school going girls was constantly increasing, which was a good sign for the country’s future as women made half of the country’s population.

He said BKMC was named after the great freedom fighter Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan commonly known as Bacha Khan, who believed in the philosophy of non-violence and struggled for the rights of people in a peaceful manner.

The governor said promoting education was the priority of the incumbent government. He also announced free medical education for differently-abled students.

GET BAIL: The Anti-Terrorism Court Mardan on Saturday granted bail to 115 Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf workers, and rejected bail applications of four others.

Hundreds of PTI workers were booked under different sections of law in connection with the May 9 riots in Mardan.

Defence counsel Riaz Khan Paindakhel along with other lawyers appeared in the court on behalf of PTI workers.

Separately, a judicial magistrate on Saturday rejected the police’s application for four-day custody of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s former lawmaker Ali Mohammad Khan.

Judicial magistrate Shuakat Ali Khan sent him back to jail. He was brought to court handcuffed.

Talking to journalists on the occasion, Ali Mohammad said he wasn’t a criminal and bringing him to court in handcuffs was condemnable. He said he had also expressed concern when former prime minister Mohammad Nawaz Sharif was presented in court in handcuffs.

He condemned the May 9 violent incidents and attacks on military installations and government buildings, and sought stern action against those involved in the riots.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2023