LAHORE, Jan 30: Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi has said the King Edward Medical University has been created after removing a lot of hurdles and facing opposition from certain quarters.

“After making a commitment to raise the status of the King Edward Medical College to a medical varsity in July 2004, I realized that there was a great opposition to the idea, and there were hurdles in realizing this commitment. Then I talked to President Gen Pervez Musharraf and following was the smooth path for the establishment of the university” he said.

Calling Prof Mumtaz Hasan the first vice-chancellor of the KEMU, the chief minister announced an initial grant of Rs50 million for the university. He said that he had consulted Chief Secretary Salman Siddique and decided to give an initial grant of Rs50 million, while more funds would follow on the basis of requirements of the university.

The chief minister was speaking at a ceremony organized to observe the World Leprosy Day by university’s dermatology department at library hall on Monday.

Mr Elahi said all major projects launched in the institution were nearing completion except the beginning of work on the surgical tower. Regretting delay in the tower’s construction, he assured that it would also begin soon.

He hoped the KEMU’s establishment would also result in a marked improvement in the training of nurses and paramedics.

The chief minister also announced that the government was launching Health Sector Reforms Programme with a major focus on upgradation of the Rural Health Centres (RHCs) and Basic Health Units (BHUs), which were supposed to cater to the needs of almost 70 per cent population living in rural areas.

Recently, he said, the government had minutely assessed the reasons behind failure of RHCs and BHUs in attracting doctors and patients. “We found that besides acute shortage of electro-medical equipment and medicines, there were lots of problems for doctors that cant let them be motivated to accept postings in rural areas,” he said.

In view of this assessment, Mr Elahi said, the government had decided to come up with a lucrative package for doctors opting to serve at RHCs and BHUs. The package would include a comfortable family residence, a vehicle, latest equipment which they would also be allowed to use for their private practice after office hours. He said the take-home salary of such doctors would also be very high. “This package for doctors will ultimately benefit the population living in rural areas of Punjab,” he added.

With regard to the World Leprosy Day, the chief minister said though doctors had controlled this scourge, people living in rural areas were still confronting the disease as a major threat to their lives and social well-being.

He pledged that the government would provide maximum facilities in rural areas to control this disease.

Punjab Health Minister Dr Tahir Ali Javed said the government had established the university by bringing marked improvement on its campus. He stressed that its faculty, administration and students should meet the challenges associated to its university status.

He said that all associated with the university should work together and achieve high standards of medical education.

KEMU vice-chancellor Prof Mumtaz Hasan said the KEMC had a marvellous history even longer than that of the Punjab University, Government College University and Lahore College for Women University. He said the establishment of KEMU had been recognized world over. “By establishing the university, CM Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has served the generations to come,” he said.

German doctor Chris Schmotzer said leprosy could be cured completely if diagnosed at an initial stage. Otherwise, she said, the disease could lead to disability.

Though leprosy was not a big problem in Pakistan as only 700 new patients surfaced in the country in a span of one year, she stressed the need to create awareness about the disease, its prevention and treatment among general public as well as medical community. She said the discipline of dermatology would play a vital role in the eradication of leprosy from the country.

KEMC and allied hospitals’ board of management chairman Prof Fateh Khan Akhtar and dermatology department head Prof Atif Hasnain Kazmi also spoke on the occasion.

A large number of former and current faculty members and students attended the function. Students, who were carrying banners and placards, also raised slogans to thank Mr Elahi for fulfilling his commitment to establish the university.