PESHAWAR, May 9: Students of Gomal Medical College, Dera Ismail Khan, have demanded upgradation of facilities, provision of teaching staff and a new building for their college so that the Pakistan Medical and Dental College (PMDC) could recognize it and they could pursue their studies unhindered.

The college’s final-year students told a press conference here Friday that the future of 250 of their college-mates was at stake because the college, established in 1998, was yet to be accorded recognition by the PMDC.

They said a PMDC team during its visit in September, 2001, had ridiculed the ill-equipped laboratories, libraries and building of the college by saying it was a shame to call it a medical college.

Only five assistant professors taught at the college against the required number of 49, they said.

The PMDC, they said, had also taken exception to the non-existence of operation theatres, CT Scan and radiology departments at the DHQ, Hospital, which was supposed to cater to the practical needs of the students.

The college has no building of its own and the students are housed in a dilapidated building of an elementary college.

Half of the students were given admission on self-financed seats that earned the government a substantial amount, but the money was not spent on improving the college facilities, they lamented.

The worst sufferers were the final-year students who would stand nowhere after completion of their session two months from now, as they would not be eligible to do house job in any recognized hospital, they said.