PESHAWAR: The health department is identifying suitable building for the establishment of a medical college in Karak district.

According to a press release, the government has decided to set up five more colleges under public-private partnership in the province.

It said that Khyber Medical University (KMU) Vice-chancellor Prof Ziaul Haq and Special Secretary Health Dr Syed Farooq Jameel visited various places for the establishment of the proposed medical college in Karak.

The purpose of this visit was to identify a suitable building for establishing a medical college in Karak on the special instructions of Chief Minister Mahmood Khan. The team visited the old building of Khushal Khan Khattak University, Karak, and the building of Polytechnic Institute and made a detailed review of various facilities available there.

It later visited Bannu Medical College, Bannu, and Prof Ziaul Haq distributed certificates among the participants of KMU’s Certificate in Health Professions Education Programme. The team also visited the proposed site of the KMU Institute of Health Sciences Bannu.

The team expressed satisfaction over the facilities available for BS degree programmes. It also visited KMU Institute of Health Sciences, Kohat.

Speaking on the occasion, Prof Ziaul Haq said that he and the health secretary visited Karak on the special directives of the chief minister, who was very keen to establish medical colleges in Karak, Buner, Charsadda, Haripur and Mansehra as soon as possible.

He said that the chief minister tasked him with identifying a government building where there was scope for setting up a medical college on a priority basis.

He said that he along with the special health secretary visited the old building of Khushal Khan Khattak University Karak and Polytechnic Institute Karak and feasibility report would soon be submitted to the chief minister.

Prof Zia said that work would be started on setting up medical college in the proposed building while district headquarters hospital Karak would be attached to the proposed college as a teaching hospital.

He said that he also visited the proposed campus of KMU institutes of health sciences in Bannu and Kohat and found the facilities available there satisfactory for starting BS programmes from the next session.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2022