ISLAMABAD: Over 400 students of the Federal Medical and Dental College (FMDC) took a sigh of relief when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced to make the college a ‘constituent’ of the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University (Pims).

The only college run by the federal government was inaugurated on February 28, 2012. Since then, the students of the college remained perturbed because the college was without basic facilities and even not recognised.

During the tenure of the previous PPP government, a bureaucrat announced that a medical college can be established in the federal capital without any funding. Later, the college was established in the building of the federal drug surveillance laboratory. Health experts at that time criticised the decision and said a medical college cannot be established in such a building.

However, the college was inaugurated in the building by the then prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and put under the Cabinet Division. Soon after the completion of the new admissions, the shortage of faculty members rocked the college due to the lack of funds.

PM took the decision to resolve issues faced by 400 students

The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) also took notice of the bogus entry of 22 doctors in the faculty of the FMDC and instructed the management of the college to remove their names from the list of faculty members.

After that, the PMDC stopped the college from further admissions because it had no attached hospital. According to rules, for the admission of one student in a year, there should be five beds in the attached hospital. So the college was bound to have a 500-bed hospital when it was admitting 100 students in every session.

Soon after, parents and students got panicked and started protests in front of the parliament house. They blocked Constitution Avenue many times and demanded the government resolve the issue.

According to a notification dated March 25, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif made the FMDC a part of the Pims university. As a result, the financial and administrative control of the college has been given to the Pims management.

Pims Vice Chancellor Dr Javed Akram told Dawn that as the FMDC was the only medical college of the federal government, it would be made one of the best colleges.

“In the past, there were the issues of faculty and a teaching hospital but now as the college has been attached with Pims, we have the best teachers and a 1,300-bed hospital,” he said.

“Students of the college will be able to do house job in the hospital and professors of Pims will teach them,” he said.

He said within a few days, an admission board would be notified to start admission again.

He said 10 per cent of the students would get free education through scholarships. Now the recognition of the college with the PMDC has become the responsibility of Pims, he said.

Moreover, some new courses, including ethics, will be introduced in the college. In reply to a question, Dr Javed said the principal of the FMDC, Dr Syed Mohammad Hasnain, retired three days ago so the appointment of a new principal would be discussed by the syndicate of Pims. After a due process, the names of candidates will be sent to the prime minister for final nomination.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2015

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