CHITRAL: Khyber Medical University (KMU), Peshawar, has decided to open nursing institutes in Lower Chitral, Upper Chitral and Upper Dir to provide healthcare facilities to people of these districts.

In this connection, a meeting was held here the other day with KMU Vice-chancellor Prof Ziaul Haq in the chiar. KMU Registrar Inamullah Khan Wazir and a delegation of Chitral Nursing Forum, led by Jafaryad Hussain and Nasir Ali Shah, attended the meeting.

After the meeting, president of Chitral Nursing Forum Nasir Ali Shah told this scribe that the delegation told the meeting that Lower Chitral, Upper Chitral and Upper Dir were among the most backward districts of the province with limited education and health facilities.

“Educated youth of Chitral, especially women, are interested in the nursing profession, so if they are provided with opportunities for nursing education at their doorsteps, it will not only benefit the nursing profession but also youth of these districts,” he said.

Mr Shah said that Prof Zia assured the delegation that KMU would utilise all its resources to fulfil the demand on the same pattern as it had established its sub-campuses in eight different districts of the province. He said that with the availability of suitable locations, nursing institutes would be established in those districts on a priority basis, he added.

“In view of the shortage of nurses in Pakistan, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, KMU has given special importance to nursing education and other necessary measures are being taken on a priority basis,” Prof Zia told the delegation.

President of Chitral chapter of Nursing Association Sakina Bibi expressed her gratitude to the KMU vice-chancellor for taking the matter earnestly. She said that they had been struggling since long to get a nursing college established in Chitral due to the high tendency of girls to adopt nursing as profession.

Published in Dawn, October 22th, 2023