SUKKUR: The Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University (SMBBMU) vice chancellor Dr Asghar Ali Channa has urged the Sindh government to give attractive salary package and other benefits to the faculties of Ghulam Muhammad Mahar Medical College (GMMMC) and Bibi Aseefa Dental College (BADC) to enable the university to get its affiliate colleges` registration restored.

He complained that highly qualified faculty staff was not ready to work at the colleges because of unattractive salary package and lack of facilities. Several advertisementshad been placed in media for so many times inviting candidates to fill vacancies in the colleges but nobody was ready to work at an institution which lacked its own building and accommodation.

Dr Channa told a press conference at the GMMMC on Friday that they had kept the GMMMC and BADC open as per directives of high officials despite the fact the colleges` registration had been cancelled by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC).

He said the university had obtained a certificate from the council after the GMMMC was opened but when another medical college was established in Khairpur, the GMMMC faculty staff rushed toKhairpur and then to the Gambat Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS) and other medical colleges for better pay.

He said that although GIMS too was not registered with PMDC but the faculty staff who went there was offered attractive pay package and other facilities.

He said the university had made preparations for restoring the registration after having brought about necessary improvements in the standard of teaching hospitals as well as faculties of colleges. State-ofthe-art laboratories had been built and equipped with latest equipment and machinery and standard of operation theatres and blood laboratories had been improved, he said.Dr Channa said that advertisements had been placed in newspapers several times seeking applications for recruitment of highly qualified faculty staff in the colleges but very few showed interest and even those who were recruited earlier went away to greener pastures.

He said that he requested the Sindh government through media to enhance salary and give other benefits to the faculty staff, take required steps to lure PhD faculty to the colleges and enable the university to get the registration restored by the PMDC.

He said the university and its affiliate colleges were facing pressure from two sides over the issue of registration. On the one hand theyhad to bear with pressure from parents and students and on the other from politicians and PMDC, he said.

Dr Channa said in response to a question that the Higher Education Commission had blacklisted a number of doctors on charges of plagiarism.

GMMMC Principal Prof Dr Ghulam Hyder Rind said that the SMBBMU would hold the 8th university symposium in December this year in which doctors from the country as well as from abroad and scholars would be invited to deliver lectures on different subjects, provide guidelines to doctors and staff on healthcare and train them in the use of latest technology and equipment.