March 16, 2002	Saturday	Muharram 1, 1423

KARACHI, March 15: Gender bias, a phenomenon much prevalent in our environs, was the topic of a lively debate at Liaquat National Postgraduate Medical Centre (LNMPC) on Wednesday, where speakers and audience identified contributing factors and discussed possible measures for improving the lot of women and the girl child.

The debate was part of proceedings of the 4th annual symposium of LNPMC, held from March 11-14. It began with a though-provoking introduction by the moderator, Dr Iffat Yazdani, who spoke about a progressive decline in male- female ratio from medical colleges to the specialist level.

She said from a female-male ratio of 1:1 as medical students, females become 1:2 as registered doctors and 1:5 as specialists. In senior administrative jobs, the ratio declined further to a depressing 1 female to 27 males, she added.

The fact that in the age group of 1-4 years, girls had a 66 per cent higher mortality rate than boys, reflecting gender bias at family level, she said

The panel members for the debate were Prof Mohammed Obaidullah Khwaja, the Dean/Principal of Punjab Medical College, Faisalabad, Dr Sabiha Khurshid Ahmed, the Principal/Executive Officer of Lahore General Hospital, Dr Unaiza Niaz Anwar, a consultant psychiatrist and psychotherapist, Dr Shershah Syed, Associate Professor at Dow Medical College and of Sindh Government Qatar Hospital, and Prof Nauman Bazmi Inam, the Chairman of the Department of Community Health Sciences at Ziauddin Medical University.

Speaking on “Is there gender bias at undergraduate and graduate levels in medical colleges,” Prof Khwaja expressed the opinion there was such bias in the past, but the trend was now declining at the graduate level.

Dr Sabiha Ahmed highlighted the bias in appointment of females to higher administrative posts in Punjab.

Dr Shershah said there was actually gender enmity of enormous proportions in Pakistan. The enmity began from the time a female was conceived, he added.

Dr Yazdani concluded the session by recommending flexible working hours for female doctors, nurses and healthcare workers.

A state-of-the-art lecture on “Medical education” by Prof S. M. Rab was the highlight of the final day proceedings of the 4th annual symposium on Thursday.

The symposium was based on the theme “Evidence-based medicine.”

On the concluding day of the symposium Prof (Dr) S. M. Rab and Samir Hoodbhoy dilated on medical education and information technology and Internet application at hospitals in the country, PPI adds.

The session on infectious diseases was preside over by Dr Ejaz Vohra. Dr Sharf Ali Shah was the guest speaker who talked about the current situation regarding HIV/AIDS in Pakistan.

The urology session was held under the chairmanship of Dr Khalid Yaqoob Nizami, and the co-chairman was Prof Anwar Naqvi. The key-note speaker was Prof Syed Adibul Hasan Rizvi.