June 21, 2008	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Sani 16, 1429

LARKANA, June 20: The Sindh government is in the process of removing the anomaly in completion of the FCPS degree of doctors who had completed their Part-1, along with salaries and stipends, after meeting all requirements, said Health Secretary Shafique Ahmed Khosos.

He was speaking at a special meeting of the Academic Council of Chandka Medical College on visiting the college and its attached hospitals here on Friday. Principal Prof Sikandar Shaikh and Dr Inayat Magsi raised the point in the meeting.

The secretary was told that a number of doctors finished FCPS Part-I were willing to complete Part-II requirements in Karachi in different specialties, but earlier policy framed by former Sindh Health Minister Sardar Ahmed was an obstacle. With this, a number of doctors from the CMC and Nawabshah Medical College were almost blocked from moving for completing mandatory requirements for the FCPS.

He said the mechanism of promotion — a right of government employee — was faulty and cited the example of a recent Departmental Promotion Committee’s meeting wherein seniority lists were not circulated and incomplete ACRs.

A cell had been formed to systematically deal with the anomaly, he said with the hopes that things would improve. He urged proper utilisation of development funds being doled out by the federal and provincial governments.

He said the Benazir Bhutto Medical University being established in Larkana and the Chandka Medical College (CMC) Larkana would be separate entities and funds would soon be released.

He said seats would be surrendered to the Sindh Public Service commission to overcome shortage of staff at the CMC. The situation at Ghulam Muhammed Mahar Medical College, Sukkur was quite serious in terms of staff, he said and added he would talk to the principal to address this issue.

The principal pointed to the shortage of staff and called for holding frequent DPCs and sending seats to the SPSC to fill the gap.

He said 100 doctors appeared in post-graduation examinations from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan, Larkana Centre recently and their pass percentage was equal to any other centres. He requested the Secretary to send two Ph.D professors from the Nawabshah Medical College and Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences to the CMC to help it in meeting the requirements of Higher Education Commission to which the secretary agreed.

He said that 200 acres for Benazir Bhutto Medical University would be acquired on Larkana-Karachi road and it would be completed in 10 years for which short and long term projects had been prepared.