ISLAMABAD, Dec 22: The University of Health Sciences Vice Chancellor Prof Mubbashar Hussain Malik on Friday asked overseas Pakistani doctors not to return home and serve the country while staying abroad.

Speaking at the annual conference of Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America (Appna) here, he contended that the doctors could better serve the country while staying there rather than returning back.

The VC said he was fully cognizant of the fact that solutions given by psychiatrists like him often appear to be radical, illogical and at times rash and too idealistic.

He was referring to the dilemma confronted by most of the expatriate doctors whether or not to return home.

“You need to accept and believe unshakably that you are at present in the best possible position to serve your country. It is not by returning to Gujar Khan and Gujranwala that you could serve this nation, it is by staying in Seattle and New York that you can do so much more for us and for yourself,” he added.

Dr Malik said that patients all over the world have equal rights on the doctors who should not get bogged down with nationality. He suggested that they could start by improving the health system in the country through mobilising preventive health strategies, bringing state of the art interventions and diagnostics, making investments and improving socio-economic parameters of the communities to which they belong.

Mentioning other possible avenues of serving the country while residing abroad, he said, a lot could be done by developing academic, research and therapeutic links and bridges between their institutions in their host countries and their alma mater.

“Show to us the real face of scientific medicine and highest ethical standards of care and concern,” he added.