LARKANA, Aug 11: The Chandka Medical College has never been given academic staff in line with mandatory requirements set by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) since its establishment 30 years ago, a source in the college told this correspondent on Saturday.

According to the rules 42 professors should be posted in the college, but the Sindh government had so far sanctioned 20 seats. Presently, only 10 professors are working in the college while 10 seats (from the sanctioned strength) are lying vacant since long.

The departments having professors included surgery, medicine, paediatrics (medicine), radiology, pathology, anatomy, biochemistry, ophthalmology and gynaecology and obstetrics.

Those without professors included pharmacology, ENT, orthopaedics, nephrology, urology, paediatrics surgery, neuro-surgery, forensic medicine, dermatology, psychiatry, community medicine and anaesthesiology.

As per the rules it is essential to post 50 associate professors, 67 assistant professors and 22 senior registrars but the government has only sanctioned 27, 45 and 21 posts, respectively, for the above designations.

Only 30 doctors are on the regular teaching faculty strength while four are working on acting charge basis and 33 are adjusted and posted against the vacant posts.

While three assistant professors are absent from duty.

A professor of the college said the college was functioning with less staff whereas the Sindh government had announced to establish a new medical college at Sukkur for which neither the staff had been posted nor seats under new admission policy allocated.

When contacted, the CMC principal Prof Noor Ahmed Channa said that time and again government had been approached for filling the vacant seats to meet the set criteria of PMDC but in vain.

He apprehended the flight of senior faculty members as soon as the Sukkur Medical College would be made functional.

DEMO: A large number of PPP activists on Sunday held a protest demonstration against a Swiss judge’s verdict about Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari.

Haji Munawar Ali Abbasi, MPA from Mirokhan, and Mazhar Junejo, Taluka president, PPP, Larkana, led the protest demonstration which started from the Kennedy Market. The protesters, marched on the main roads of the city and held a sit-in at the Pakistan Chowk. Later, they converged in front of the press club.

They lashed out Federal Minister for Information Shaikh Rasheed for using insulting language against the PPP leadership and termed it “a smear campaign” launched against Benazir Bhutto and Zardari.