SUKKUR: Several hundred students of the Khairpur Medical College along with their teachers on Monday travelled to Sukkur to take out a rally and hold a demonstration outside the local press club against unavailability of teaching and healthcare equipment at their institution.

After holding a march from Dua Chowk to the press club, they spoke to the media to narrate their grievances.

Representing the protesters, Dr Mohammad Awais Ansari, Dr Rabia Shah, Dr Parianka Makheja, Bakht Ali and Haresh Chowan said that the college had been running short of faculty while the essential facilities and equipment like CT scan and MRI machines were not made available at the institution. Due to the situation, the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) was not recognising the institution, they added.

“Future of over 500 students hangs in the balance owing to the situation,” they said, adding that they had been holding protests in Khairpur for several days but the authorities concerned did not pay any heed to their grievances. “That’s why we decided to travel to Sukkur and register our protest here,” they said.

The protesters held a sit-in outside the press club for several hours and kept raising slogans against the provincial government for its “indifferent attitude”.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2019