PESHAWAR, Oct 26: The basic medical sciences department of the Khyber Medical College is facing a shortage of lecturers after at least a dozen of them left it early this month for more lucrative jobs at another department of the same institution, according to sources.

“Recently 12 professors — five professors, three associate professors and four assistant professors — of the basic medical sciences department of the college quit their jobs and joined the girls’ campus of the Khyber Medical College for better salaries,” said an official.

According to him, four professors of the department had taken a leave from the college two years ago and were working for private medical colleges. These teachers had got their leaves extended recently.

The teachers belonging to the said department are required to teach anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, forensic medicine and toxicology, pathology, community medicine and pharmacology.

The sources expressed the fear that the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council might disaffiliate the college for lack of staff.

The sources said that recently the provincial government had announced monthly allowances of between Rs10,000 and Rs50,000 for professors, associate professors, assistant professors and lecturers of the basic medical sciences department. The aim behind the move was to put brakes on the brain drain from the public sector’s medical institutes.

The Government of Punjab had already adopted the same strategy because the teachers there were switching over to private medical colleges for enhanced monetary and academic benefits.

A source in the Khyber Medical College, which is the oldest medical college of the province, said that only teachers serving at the provincial government’s institutes were entitled to draw allowances. Whereas, the Khyber Medical College is now a constituent of the Khyber Medical University and the teachers there were not entitled to the allowance.

Nevertheless, sources said that teachers of the basic medical sciences in the Gomal Medical College, Dera Ismail Khan; Bannu Medical, Bannu, and Kohat Medical College, Kohat, drew the allowance despite the fact that these colleges had been created from the Khyber Medical College’s platform.

The Khyber Medical College being a constituent of the Khyber Medical University would follow the rules laid down by the Higher Education Commission for the promotion of teachers to the next grade, which required the teachers to get PhD degrees.