LARKANA: A large number of members of civil society and other organisations took out a rally and staged a sit-in at Jinnahbagh Chowk outside the press club here on Sunday in protest against Sindh government’s decision to change the name of Gambat Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS) to Abdul Qadir Shah Jilani Institute of Medical Sciences.

Zahid Jamro, convener of ‘Save GIMS campaign’, and leaders and activists of Sindhi Adabi Sangat, Sindh Graduates Association, Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz and other organisations termed the name change uncalled for and said it was a political decision which had been imposed in education sector just to appease the people of Ranipur.

They said that residents of Gambat had risen against the decision and they had been protesting for the past 50 days. Changing names with the intention of using it as a political bribe was condemnable as it would cast negative impact on the agreements and MoUs the institution had signed with different world organisations, they said.

GIMS started off as a government dispensary in 1934 which was upgraded to taluka hospital in 1979 and the Sindh government through a law passed in 2006 accorded it the status of a medical institution but recently the same assembly reverted its decision and changed its name to Abdul Qadir Shah Jilani Institute of Medical Sciences, they said.

GIMS had become widely known in the world as the Gambat Institute of Medical Sciences, it was a common asset and it looked unwise to change its name, they said.

They vowed to continue to pressurise the government to avoid snatching away the identity of GIMS, which was now a world recognised institution offering services in bone marrow, liver and kidney transplantation. Currently a team of German doctors was working in the institute, they said.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2015

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