KARACHI, Feb 13: Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan, who is also the chancellor of public sector universities in the province, has asked the varsities to focus on public welfare and come up with viable development and research works.

Lack of resources used to be a major problem faced by higher education institutions in public sector, but now the situation had changed with an increase of the education budget from 0.2 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product to two per cent of the GDP, he said while speaking at the foundation laying ceremony of the National Institute of Liver and Gastrointestinal Diseases held at the Sindh Medical College campus of the Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) on Wednesday.

He said that educational institutes in the province were being encouraged to initiate research projects for public welfare and expressed the hope that they would come up with viable plans for the betterment of their living standard. He was happy that the institute would be made functional within a year. In addition to the services that it would offer to patients, he said, the institute would impart educate students and doctors on liver and gastrointestinal diseases.

Dr Ibad said that the DUHS had made substantial progress since its inception in the year 2003 under a charter granted by the government of Sindh and expressed the hope that it would become one of the best medical varsities in the world. He announced a grant of Rs100 million for the construction and working of the new institute, which is being established at the site of Shah Latif Boys Hostel for SMC students, adjacent to the National Institute of Child Health. The hostel was vacated about six months back.

On the occasion, the governor also inaugurated Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan Institute of Oral Health Sciences, a dental hospital set up in a 150-year-old building recently renovated to accommodate the institute.

DUHS vice-chancellor Prof Masood Hameed Khan, who had got a four-year extension in his tenure as the VC, said the university that had three constituent medical institutes earlier, had 13 medical colleges and institutes at present. He said that the university had been focusing on all possible health education, right from medical education to community health care.

He said that on the project’s completion, the institute would not only offer screening, counselling, early diagnosis and cost-effective treatment facilities to patients but also have preventive strategies, including immunisation and surveillance services.

Prof Khan mentioned that it was the first dental institute in the country that offered Masters in Dental Surgery education in all the basic dental science disciplines, in addition to conducting the BDS and diploma courses.

Among others, the vice-chancellor of the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Prof Naushad Sheikh, DMC Principal Prof Salahuddin Afsar, Sindh Medical College Principal Prof Tariq Sharafatullah, and senior faculty members of the DUHS were present on the occasion.