LAHORE, Nov 25: Punjab Health Minister Prof Mahmood Ahmad Chaudhry on Monday tried to allay fears of Shaikha Fatima Institute of Nursing and Technologies students over the handing over of their campus to the UHS.

Prof Chaudhry, who is also chairman of the boards of governors of the Shaikh Zayed Hospital (SZH) and the University of Health Sciences (UHS), held an hour-long meeting with the BSc medical lab technology students who had staged a demonstration on the campus on Saturday to register their opposition to the new project.

The minister assured them they would not be dislodged from their present campus unless an ‘appropriate’ facility was ready for them.

Talking to Dawn, Jaffar Ali, Qamar Shahbaz, Nyla and other students said the minister had suggested that the students and the laboratories would be shifted to a vacant building situated inside the hospital.

When the students asked the minister why the UHS was not housed there, the minister replied that “your building is better and more presentable”.

They quoted the minister as saying that medical education administration would soon be taken over by the UHS from the Punjab University to “raise the standard of medical education in the province.”

The students also told Dawn that they were sent on forced holidays from Oct 1 to 3 while citing “security reasons” when President Musharraf was scheduled to inaugurate the university. They claimed that the minister had told the president at the inaugural ceremony that the building was lying vacant. “When we asked this question, the minister said that he had referred to the building lying vacant inside the hospital,” the students said.

The minister reportedly also denied the students’ charge that he had threatened their director Mansoorul Hasan Alvi with dire consequences if he did not vacate the building. “I didn’t say anything to Mr Alvi,” the minister said.

Mr Alvi, however, told this correspondent that a couple of days ago some UHS officials had approached him to get his office vacated. “When they tried to become unpleasant with me, I left my office saying that I am answerable only to the SZH chairman and the federal cabinet secretary. I also registered my protest with the SZH chairman,” he said.

According to Mr Alvi, the health minister himself came to his office next day and told him that he would have to vacate this office. “The minister even asked the UHS finance director to get the room vacated and occupy it. However, the finance director has not yet approached him,” he claimed. Mr Alvi said the minister had managed to get all keys of the institute building from his office superintendent.

Quoting his office superintendent, he claimed that Prof Chaudhry, being the UHS BoG chairman, had written a letter to him that all classrooms and laboratories would continue to function in the existing building till such time when an alternate campus was provided to them. The minister also stated that the building now belonged to the UHS and he (Mr Alvi) should extend full cooperation to the UHS chief executive. He claimed that the minister had also informed the federal cabinet secretary that he had received the institute building keys. — Reporter