PESHAWAR: The government`s plan to start admissions to Nowshera Medical College next year is likely to get materialised following the court`s directives to stop launch of the 11th public sector medical college of the province.

The government has planned to launch Nowshera Medical College (NMC) in the New District Headquarters Hospital (NDHQ) by December 31 this year as part of its programme to build a college in each district.

A new category `A` hospital had been sanctioned by Jamaati-Islami leader Qazi Hussain Ahmed in 2005 owing to the miserable condition of the old district headquarters hospital but it couldn`t be completed due to lack of funds and land disputes.

The present government sped up the project which was nearing completion and required electricity connections, equipment and staff etc to become operational, relevant officials told Dawn.

The government has decided to start NMC in the second storey of the hospital and construct a new building for it and Rs500 have been allocated for the purpose.

`But the prevalent confusing has delayed the project,` officials said. According to them, the court had restrained the government from shifting Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Medical College (ZABMC) from Peshawar to Nowshera.

As a matter of fact, ZABMC and NMC were two separate projects, they said, adding the former government planned to start ZABMC but failed to do so because it had no land or building.

The government wanted to start ZABMC in a building primarily built to house Postgraduate Paramedical Institute (PGPI) in Provincial Health Services Academy Peshawar.

The previous government spent more than Rs9 million for bifurcation of the building to convert it into a medical college but Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Paramedical Association launched strikes and submitted petition in the court that the government should be restrained from starting college in a building built for paramedics.

Early this year, the court directed the government to hand over the building to PGPI which left the government with no option but to obey the directives. The government subsequently stopped launch of ZABMC for non-availability of space in Peshawar, officials said.

They said that NMC was part of the programme under which colleges were built in all districts to enrol more students and produce more doctors to cope with patients` needs.

Medical colleges in Dir and Swabi are also part of the government`s plan to promote medical education and put in place effective healthcare facilities.

Posts of science teachers for NMC were advertised in June to fulfil the basic requirement of the college in line with Pakistan Medical and Dental Council`s guidelines. Similarly, plans had been finalised to purchase furniture and equipment and offer admission to 100 students in the coming academic session.

Officials said that the government had transferred staff to NMC from other colleges. The transferred staffers were government servants, however, they were not employees of ZABMC, they said.

Officials said that Peshawar had already 10 medical colleges and priority was being given to other districts. `Nowshera is located on Grand Trunk Road and therefore requires more health facilities,` they added.

Officials said that ZABMC would be built in Peshawar when land was acquired for it. They said that allocation had also been made to put in place 18 specialties in NDHQ.

The impression being created that ZABMC was shifted from Peshawar to Nowshera was wrong as colleges in Peshawar, Dera Ismail Khan, Swat, Abbottabad and Mardan already existed and the government wanted to set up a college in each district.

The NDHQ was modelled after Al Shifa Hospital, Islamabad where all specialised services would be made available under one roof, officials said.