Monopolistic legislation suffocating medical teaching institutions in KP

PESHAWAR:  After realizing the flaws in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Universities Act 2012, the provincial government issued an ordinance to address some of the serious defects in the said Act.

The ordinance will lapse in the next few days if the proposed amendments are not passed by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.The KP Universities Act 2012 was amended in 2015. There is now a move to amend it again and the agenda is currently lying in the KP Assembly Secretariat.

The proposed amendment pertains to Section 4 of the Act which was originally as under. “The University shall exercise the powers conferred on it by or under this act within the territorial limit or technical jurisdiction notified by the government from time to time.”

The proposed amendment says that, “the university shall exercise the powers conferred on it by or under this act within the territorial limit notified by Government from time to time.”The amendment would encourage all those who are planning to establish an institute of learning in the shape of university or degree awarding institute, or those who wish to run a medical teaching institution with the option of affiliating with a university of their choice.

It will also encourage competitiveness with consequent enhanced quality of training. If this was not approved, no individual or organization would be allowed to establish a medical university in KP.

Some health experts said it would stop growth of professionals serving in the universities these days. “There is a very serious attempt by some quarters and individuals to try and add the word ‘technical jurisdiction’ which will render the aspiring universities totally redundant and the existing medical teaching institutions in the province would be pushed into stagnation. The original legislation was dictatorial and monopolistic which stunted the growth of quality universities in the province leaving all medical institutions at the whims of the sole public sector medical university, i.e. KMU,” opined one senior health expert.

No such practice exists for other technical universities like engineering, etc and this was solely done to satisfy the whims of a group of individuals who wanted to rule the medical arena for years to come. “This is also not the norm and practice in other provinces where there are some excellent and prestigious private universities controlling medical institutions registered with them,” he said.

He added that Aga Khan University Karachi, Baqai University Karachi, Riphah International University Islamabad and University of Lahore are some of the examples.

Punjab has got two medical universities while Sindh has four in public sector. “Why shall KP have legislation that is suffocating both public and private sector medical teaching institutions?  If such a monopolistic approach were to be followed in the field of engineering for example, there would be no GIK in this province. The only public sector medical university has displayed serious flaws in their system of education so far,” the medical expert said.

He said they are unwilling or incapable of adopting modern teaching methodology and curriculum and their constituent colleges are forced to continue with decades old systems that have been rejected the world over. “They have a flawed examination system where the students take about six years to complete a course of MBBS that should be completed in five years at the most. Another misconception that is being spread is that a unified standard of education can only be enforced if all colleges come under a single university. All medical and dental colleges in the country are regulated by the PMDC which has stringent criteria for the same,” a senior consultant said.

He added all the universities in Pakistan, whether medical or in other fields, are regulated and monitored by a federal body, the Higher Education Commission.He argued that controls that would be exercised over the single public sector university would also be applicable to any other university which is granted a charter after meeting all pre- requisites.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led coalition government has recognised the flaws in the Model University Act 2012 and one such flaw is the monopoly of Khyber Medical University in the field of medical education. “The absence of competitiveness has not only stunted the growth of the existing medical teaching institutions both in public and private sector but also contributed to the stagnation seen in the performance of KMU,” the medical expert said.

In order to be fair to all and to discourage monopoly and encourage growth of strong and modern educational institutions, he argued that the said Act should be passed as proposed by the government.

“The government must not bow to the pressure lobby. It should remain firm to allow any university or degree awarding institution to impart training in any discipline of science including medicine and its allied branches as per standard set by the PMDC and HEC. The restriction of ‘technical jurisdiction’ shall be done away with forever,” he suggested.