KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly on Wednesday unanimously passed into law three government bills, including the Jinnah Sindh Medical University (Amendment) Bill, 2015 that declared the Jinnah Post­graduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and the National Institute of Child Health (NICH) as constituent hospitals of the medical university.

Highlighting its objectives, Sindh Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Sikandar Mandhro said it was a pre-requisite condition set by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council for any medical university to have its own constituent hospitals. It was in this spirit that the amendment was introduced, he said.

The minister explained that the JPMC, NICH and the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, which had been functioning under the federal government, were transferred to the Sindh government after 18th Amendment to the Constitution that devolved the control of all health facilities to the provinces where they were situated.

He said the move would allow graduate and postgraduate students of the medical university to get training and house job in the institutions.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement parliamentary party leader Syed Sardar Ahmad termed the bill a good step citing that no medical university could be called complete if it lacked a constituent hospital.

Expressing his support for the bill, former chief minister Liaquat Ali Jatoi highlighted the need for paying attention to improve the condition of the public sector hospitals and to improve medical care and education quality.

Pakistan Muslim League-Fun­ctional lawmaker Mehtab Akbar Rashdi said that the JPMC and NICH employees had resisted the move as it was a common perception that after the hospitals transfer to the Sindh government, their condition would be no better than those being run by the provincial government. Supporting the bill, she said the provincial government ought to address their fears.

Two other bills adopted earlier were The Sindh Service Tribunal (Third Amendment) Bill and The Barrett Hodgson International University Bill.

The amendment bill related to the service tribunal is aimed at empowering its chairman to re-appropriate funds from one head of account to another head of accounts or sanction expenditure and disburse the same on any item within the budget allocation to the tribunal without government approval. The bill also authorizes its chairman to create new posts and abolish old posts, provided that expenditure is met from with the allocated budget of the tribunal for which the government approval was not required.

By the third bill 23 of 2015, the assembly gave approval to the the Barrett Hodgson International University, Karachi, which would be run by the Salim Habib Education Foundation.

Dr Mandhro said that with an increase in city’s population, the demand for higher education was also growing especially in faculties like pharmacy, economics, planning and public finance and advanced mathematics. The proposed university in the private sector would be modern and would have high standard, he said. The speaker also announced that the Sindh governor had given assent to eight bills namely the Sindh Mental Health, Commission on the Status of Women, Information of Temporary Residents, Peoples University of Medical and Health Sciences for Women, Shaheed Benazir (amendment), Sound system (regulation), Coastal Development Authority (Amendment), and Sindh Finance (Amendment) bills, 2015.

He said the foundation had already completed its building in Korangi district and had also started recruitment of the staff for the faculties which could become operational within a few months after getting the charter.

The adjournment motion of PML-F lawmaker Nand Kumar regarding observation of a protest day on April 20 by people of Sanghar for want of facilities in the district could not be taken up as its mover was not present in the house.

As the Jinnah Sindh Medical University (Amendment) Bill, 2015 was the last item on the order of the day, Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani after its adoption adjourned the session till Thursday.

Resolution adopted

The Sindh Assembly on Wednesday unanimously adopted a resolution tabled by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro out of turn under Rule 256.

In the resolution the house has recommended to the government that the proposals/ suggestions given by members of the assembly be incorporated in the budget for 2015-16.

Published in Dawn, May 21th, 2015

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