KARACHI: Giving itself a tough two-month deadline under pressure from the Pakistan Medical Dental Council (PMDC) to launch a medical college by January next year, Karachi University (KU) is yet to do the basic homework required to set up the institution, it emerged on Monday.

Sources said that confusion prevailed within the ranks of the university administration and it was still considering different options about a suitable place to set up a medical college and a teaching hospital. Apart from the infrastructure, there was also a question mark over how a medical faculty would be arranged in a short time.

The sources said that one of the ideas being discussed was to establish the medical college and an attached hospital for training at the Lari Institute for Kidney and Urological Diseases. The institute, part of the university, is under the Kidney Foundation that had a memorandum of understanding with the university.

They said that the institute, established years ago for research, training and teaching in kidney ailments, could not be developed into a fully-fledged free health facility as was conceived due to lack of funding, though it did offer an out-patient department to a limited number of patients.

A week ago, some KU employees were seen putting up a signboard on a vacant plot in front of the Sheikh Zayed Islamic Centre outside the university. The signboard read: ‘KU site for the teaching hospital’.

Asked how the university planned to start a college in a short time, KU registrar Moazzam Ali Khan said: “Medical classes hopefully will start by January next year. The Lari institute is one of the options we are considering. We might conduct initial classes there and later build up the teaching hospital and college at another place. The criteria for staff selection would also be met.”

He also said that though he was not aware, university officials might have made a contact with the Kidney Foundation in that regard.

Dr Jaffar Naqvi, the chief executive officer of the Kidney Foundation, however, said that the university had not made any contacts with him over the matter. “If the university makes a contact, we will put the matter for discussion in the board of governors of the foundation that will take a decision.”

The sources said the university also faced strong opposition from a section of the teachers’ community who believed that the university should not have succumbed to the ‘illegal decision’ of the PMDC that de-notified the KU with eight other universities on the ground that these institutions did not have a constituent medical college and, likewise, could not award affiliation to medical colleges.

“The present PMDC status is highly controversial and the matter [in this regard] is pending in court. Besides, the council de-notified the university without serving a show-cause notice. We have been condemned without being heard — that’s something unconstitutional,” said a senior university teacher on condition of anonymity.

“If the university administration had challenged the PMDC decision in court, it would have easily got a stay order and then it could negotiate the matter on its own terms with the PMDC. Even now, there was a chance of seeking the court’s intervention,” he added.

Some other teachers described the decision of setting up a college and hospital as one taken in haste that lacked common sense.

Sources privy to the KU syndicate said that though the statutory body at its meeting held last month did decide to set up a medical college and hospital next year, no specific month was agreed upon to establish them.

“There was strong opposition from teachers against the PMDC decision and most of them wanted to seek the court’s intervention. But a senior non-faculty syndicate member having strong political links told the forum that he had talked to the government official responsible for sending the notice and he had assured him that the notice would be withdrawn if the university set up a medical college and a hospital,” a syndicate member said.

On his assurance, according to the sources, the university syndicate headed by the vice chancellor decided to make the announcement of setting up a medical college and a hospital.

The university administration, however, received a shock later when the chancellor (the Sindh governor) at a meeting supported the PMDC over the matter and directed all public sector non-medical universities to immediately de-affiliate all their affiliated medical colleges in line with the decision of the council.

“Teachers strongly oppose the PMDC move and are worried over the chancellor’s stance on this matter,” said Karachi University Teachers Society President Prof Jamil Kazmi.

Officials at the KU looking after the college affiliation issues said that the situation was unclear and there had not been any official word or policy on the de-affiliation process.

According to these officials, representatives of affiliated colleges held a meeting with the KU vice chancellor some time back and expressed the desire to continue their affiliation with the university as it had an established name abroad.

The university, sources said, generated more than Rs100 million from 13 affiliated colleges, including the Fatima Jinnah Dental Medical College, Jinnah Medical and Dental College, Liaquat College of Medical and Dentistry, Department of Physiotherapy of Liaquat National Hospital, Liaquat National Medical College, Sir Syed College of Medical Science for Girls and Altamash Institute of Dental Medicine.

“It’s not just about losing a sizeable income. The matter has put KU’s credibility at stake. Setting up a medical college and a hospital was an old idea and we have been persuading the administration to take an initiative in this regard. Unfortunately, now when a decision has come, it has been taken under pressure that would only lead to compromising transparency in affairs,” a KU teacher remarked.

Published in Dawn, November 18th, 2014