KARACHI, Oct 23: The Sindh Minister for Health and Population Welfare, Maj Gen E. Ahsan Ahmad, has said that time will tell how far the present government has been successful in strengthening the present system.

Opposing a personality-based system, which he opined could not last long in any institution, the minister said: “institutions have to stay while personalities keep on coming and going.” This is the basic principle applied by the present government, he added.

The minister’s observations came at a farewell dinner hosted in his honour by Dr Naushad A. Shaikh, Medical Superintendent, and the administration of the Civil Hospital, Karachi, at Sindh Club on Tuesday.

He said that holding of welcome functions for new-comers and farewell dinners for the out-going is a good tradition which should continue.

Mr Ahmad said that he and his team adopted a number of measures over the last two-and-a-half years with an aim of establishing a transparent and corruption-free system in the Health Department. He expressed the hope that his successors would carry on the system for the benefit and welfare of poor patients and other people.

Speaking on the occasion, the Secretary Health, Khalid Latif, said that the establishment of a medical university in public sector in Sindh was a historical event. Dr Naushad remarked that the measures taken by the outgoing minister would prove a milestone for the health department in future.

The Principal of Dow Medical College, Prof. Elahi Bux Soomro, President of the Friends of Burns Centre, Abdullah Feroz, and Dr Kaleem Butt also spoke on the occasion.

The Secretary Information, Ashfaq Memon, Secretary Population Welfare, Mushtaq Memon, Nawab of Junagarh State, Sahibzada Ghulam Muhammad, Chief Dental Surgeon, Dr Shams Soomro, Dr Asim, Dr F. U. Baqai, Mrs Arjumand Qazi, many professors and officials of health department attended the function.

—PPI