LAHORE: A fresh summary has been moved to set up three more medical universities in Punjab.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has earlier accorded approval to a summary to establish two new medical universities – one each in Rawalpindi and Multan.

Sources said Law Minister Rana Sanaullah persuaded the chief minister to establish first medical university in his hometown Faisalabad,

The law minister acted when he was approached by a delegation comprising the Punjab Medical College Faisalabad Principal and some other senior faculty members.

An official privy to the development told Dawn that the law minister later took up the issue with the CM and managed to convince him that Faisalabad, the second largest urban centre in Punjab, was in a dire need of new medical university.

As a result, he said, the process to establish two medical universities in Multan and Rawalpindi was immediately stopped.

Mr Sana reportedly told the chief minister that the introduction of the postgraduate programmes and training courses would not only improve standard of treatment and medical education in the region but would also help the PML-N in the coming general election.

In a related development, the official said, the Punjab government has decided to upgrade the public sector medical colleges of Rawalpindi, Faisalabad and Multan into universities.

In the earlier summaries, he said, the chief minister had approved that the Nishtar Medical College, Multan, and Rawalpindi Medical College would be ‘constituent colleges’ of the proposed universities.

The fresh proposal to abolish the status of the colleges was moved on the pattern of the Kind Edward Medical University and the Fatima Jinnah Medical University which were also functioning without their respective constituent colleges.

This decision was taken in a recent meeting of the cabinet committee on legislative business which was headed by the law minister.

The official claimed that the status of colleges was being abolished in a bid to facilitate two current principals of the medical colleges (Rawalpindi and Faisalabad) as vice chancellors of the proposed universities.

He said the same attempt was made while upgrading the King Edward Medical College and the Fatima Jinnah Medical College to facilitate `blue-eyed’ principals.

The medical fraternity believes that the upgrade was one of the reasons of deteriorating standards of medical education and research in the KEMU and the FJMU.

The official said the government’s fresh attempt to abolish the status of three more medical colleges might irk the medical community.

He said the cabinet committee in its meeting also opted for the promulgation of the ordinance for speedy establishment of the proposed medical universities instead of making efforts through legislation in the Punjab assembly.

As the provincial assembly was not in session, the a fresh summary had been moved to the CM through the chief secretary to forward the same to the Punjab governor for promulgation of the ordinance, the official said.Punjab at present has three medical universities -- University of Health Sciences, KEMU and FJMU-- all based in the provincial capital.

Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2017