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Tuesday March 19, 2024

KP governor, minister fail to show up at BKMC convocation

By Mushtaq Yusufzai
December 27, 2017

PESHAWAR: Students and faculty members of Bacha Khan Medical College (BKMC) in Mardan were disappointed as neither Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor nor Health Minister Shahram Khan Tarakai bothered to attend the first and long-scheduled convocation of the medical and dental college on Tuesday.

According to the college administration, they had invited the governor and health minister to the function and both of them had made commitment to attend the event. The governor, who is chancellor of the public and private universities, was supposed to chair the event as chief guest while the health minister is a pro-chancellor and was invited to preside over the function as a guest of honour.

“It was a big shock and disappointment to the students as well as the faculty members of the college as it was our first convocation but neither the governor nor the health minister bothered to fulfil their commitment,” a senior faculty of the college complained.

Pleading anonymity, he said they would have delayed the event for some time as they were sure the governor and health minister would fulfil their commitment and would definitely come to the college convocation.

“The event was scheduled to begin at 10am. We would have delayed it till 2pm but it was good that someone in the college administration approached the registrar of Khyber Medical University to check when the governor would arrive in the college. It was a big surprise and shock to all of us when the registrar informed the college administration that the governor was not coming,” said one of the faculty members.

Besides the governor and health minister, KMU Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Arshad Javaid was also invited to the event and the governor then directed him to confer degrees upon the graduates. One of the students, after receiving his degree from Prof Arshad Javaid, complained that the governor underestimated their college by avoiding to attend its first convocation.

The vice-chancellor later in his speech explained it and told the students and faculty members that the governor didn’t underestimate their college but could not attend the event due to some other important engagements.

The BKMC authorities have informed the KMU administration in October 2017 about their convocation and requested them to get them time from the governor. “The KMU administration, after consultation with staff of the governor on November 14, 2017, set December 26, 2017, as the date of convocation but even then the governor didn’t come,” complained one of the senior faculty members.

Some of the faculty members felt that Health Minister Shahram Khan didn’t attend the event due to the governor but it doesn’t seem to be true as both of them were seen attending similar events in the past. Also, the college administration said they had invited Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Education Minister Mohammad Atif Khan who belongs to Mardan but he too didn’t come.

The BKMC started its classes from January 2010 and around 200 students of three batches of MBBS and two batches of BDS were given degrees. Meanwhile, the college gave lifetime achievement awards to Prof Dr Ziaul Islam, Dr Fazle Hadi and Prof Dr Mohammad Israr Khan for their services to the medical profession.

Prof Ziaul Islam is a noted ophthalmologist and founding principal of BKMC and chief executive of its tertiary care hospital, Mardan Medical Complex (MMC). He also established KP’s first public sector Women Medical College, Khyber Girls Medical College (KGMC) Peshawar. Dr Fazle Hadi is an Islamabad-based physician and is the chairman of Board of Governors (BoG) of BKMC, while Prof Dr Israr is dean of the college.