PESHAWAR, Feb 11: The NWFP health minister has allayed concerns about the girls' campus of the Khyber Medical College (KMC) and said that every effort would be made to start classes in the new campus in the first week of March.

"Reservations of parents and girl-students would be addressed to before shifting of females students to the new campus", Inayatullah Khan told journalists during a briefing at the health secretariat on Friday.

Secretary Health Abdus Samad, acting Principal KMC Prof Dr Fazal Ahmad and Director Girls Campus Project Dr Ziaul Islam were also present in the briefing. The minister, however, turned down a proposal of offering incentives, such as scholarships, to those female students who express their willingness to study at the new campus.

He said that last year the provincial government had decided to establish a separate college for female students and it was decided to set up another campus of the KMC where the female students of the college were to be shifted.

Mr Khan said that it was government's plan to first have a separate campus of KMC for girl students and then convert it into a full-fledge women medical college. Such decision, he said, was taken to avoid problem of its recognition by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council.

He said the government had already had a bitter experience regarding recognition of the medical colleges of Saidu and Gomal. Later Project Director Dr Ziaul Islam gave details of facilities to be provided to the students at the new campus.

He said that the girls' campus was being established in a rented building in Hayatabad Township at an estimated cost of Rs176.062 million. Dr Zia claimed that overseas Pakistani female students had been demanding establishment of a separate medical college for girls since long.