PESHAWAR, Oct 31: The Khyber Medical College is yet to be upgraded to the university level despite announcement, made in this regard by two prime ministers and President Pervez Musharraf.

Established in 1954, the college was taken over by the provincial government from the University of Peshawar in 1975. Its annual enrolment has risen from 50 to 300 since then and it has about 1,500 students. It has produced more than 8,000 doctors.

Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto had announced on Oct 12, 1989, that the college would be upgraded to the Khyber Medical University. The University Grants Commission recommended its upgrading on Nov 29, 1998.

A former chief minister announced its upgrading on behalf of the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif in October 1999.

President Pervez Musharraf on Dec 21, 2004, speaking as the chief guest at the golden jubilee ceremony of the college, not only announced upgrading of the college but also announced a grant of Rs20 million for it. He also asked the NWFP governor to expedite the project.

“Despite all the announcements, the project is yet to see the light of the day, mainly due to bureaucratic intrigues,” said sources at the health secretariat.

Meanwhile, the National Education Policy (1998-2008) recommended establishing three medical universities in the country. Subsequently, the Liaqat Medical College, Jamshoro, and the Dow Medical College, Karachi, were upgraded two university level. The Lahore University of Medical and Health Sciences and the King Edward Medical Universities have also been established.

Officials said the upgrading would also benefit the students of the Gomal Medical College, Dera Ismail Khan; Saidu Medical College, Swat; Bannu Medical College; Khyber College of Dentistry, Peshawar; the Postgraduate Medical Institute, Peshawar; and Ayub Medical College, Abbottabad.

The University of Peshawar conducts 57 examinations of the medical colleges in a year. The university is overburdened with conducting 300 examinations per year. The system of examination is obsolete which causes delays and errors in results.

“We have 221 faculty members and 494 administrative and support staff,” said a teacher at the college.

“We are missing the Rs3 billion grant which is being given to all the universities by the Higher Education Commission annually and other grants given by the ministry of science and technology,” said a teacher, adding that the entire budget for medical education in the province was less than Rs1 billion. The medical graduates also missed fellowship and scholarship programmes, he said.

The Higher Education Commission has issued a no-objection certificate for the project after inspection of the college.

The provincial cabinet had approved the proposed Khyber Medical University bill and it would soon be tabled in the provincial assembly, an official said.

“Once it becomes an act, it would again be tabled in the provincial assembly to incorporate amendments in line with the Federal Universities Ordinance, 2002, to qualify for the grants issued by the federal government,” he said.

The engineering and agriculture colleges in the province have also been granted the status of universities over the past years.