PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to shift Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Medical College (ZABMC) from Peshawar to Nowshera, the home district of chief minister, sources say.

“The government has abandoned the ZABMC project in Peshawar. Its project director has been relieved and about 40 teachers hired for basic sciences department of the new college have been transferred to Nowshera Medical College,” they said.

The sources said that the college was planned and approved by the previous government and was supposed to admit 50 students for the 2014 session in Peshawar. However, the college will now become operational in Nowshera district.

They said that millions of rupees had been spent on the project preparation and work on development of infrastructure to start the college in Peshawar. They said that now the government would allocate new funds and start effort for starting the college in Nowshera.

The concept of ZABMC was floated by then government when it was informed that the existing 10 public sector medical colleges in the province weren’t enough to offer admission to a desired number of students, they said. At present, the province produces 1,000 doctors a year, which are not enough in view of the health needs of growing population, they said.

“It was decided early last year that the Lady Reading Hospital, which has all the desired departments, will serve as teaching facility for ZABMC,” they said and added that unlike teachers of other teaching hospitals, who also taught at the affiliated colleges along with treating patients in their respective hospitals, the LRH teachers performed only clinical duties.

The officials said that there was no problem of Pakistan Medical and Dental Council’s recognition for the LRH due to its highly-qualified teachers and it was sure that the college would start admission in early 2014. Now, there is no chance of the college in Peshawar, they said.

Secretary health Ghulam Qadir Khan told Dawn that there was no plan to shift ZABMC to Nowshera, but a new medical college was being established there.

“The new district headquarters (DHQ) hospital in Nowshera is near completion which will serve as teaching facility for the Nowshera Medical College. It will become operational by May or June. Meanwhile, we have planned to convert the existing DHQ hospital, Nowshera, into a medical college,” he said. It is part of the government’s plan to establish medical colleges in Mardan and Dir. He said that funds for all these projects would be allocated in the next budget.

He said that the health department had earlier decided to start the ZABMC near the Peshawar Health Services Academy in a building originally built to house the Postgraduate Paramedical Institute (PGPI). As the government was in the process of starting the college, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Paramedical Institute went to court which stopped the college and ordered that the premises be given to the PGPI, he said.

The secretary said that the government gave the building to paramedics in the fulfillment of the court’s order. He said that as such there was no proper building immediately available to house ZABMC.

“We have not abandoned the college in Peshawar. It will be built on the plot acquired for the Benazir Bhutto Teaching Hospital near motorway,” he said.