Army warns against setting up university on JPMC land

Karachi
In a strange development, the Pakistan Army’s Karachi station commander has warned the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre not to use the hospital’s land - 68.23 acres that were donated by the military - for any other purpose than as a part of the medical facility, specifically expressing reservations over the setting up of the Jinnah Sindh Medical University there.
In a letter to the JPMC director, Lt Colonel Wasim Uddin Shaikh, on behalf of the station commander, wrote that the establishment of the university had been notified by the Sindh Assembly through a notification issued on June 4 this year.
It was further pointed out that the 68.23 acres of the JPMC were transferred by the army to the federal health ministry free of charge, specifically for a public hospital.
The official warned that any other construction or development on the land would be considered unauthorised and illegal.
“[The] Ministry of Defence/Army reserve the right to take action against any such construction/delay,” it was stated in the letter.
The provincial assembly had passed the Jinnah Sindh Medical University (Amendment) Bill, 2015 into law on May 20 for making the JPMC and the National Institute of Child Health constituent centres of the public varsity and since then, certain quarters of the two hospitals have been expressing reservations over the move.
Dr Javed Jamali, a JPMC spokesperson, confirmed that the letter had been received from the office of the Karachi station commander, but added that there appeared to be some of kind of misunderstanding.
“The JPMC will continue to remain a hospital even after becoming a constituent of the university,” he added.
The spokesperson maintained that some elements of the JPMC had misguided the military authorities.
“The hospital will remain working as healthcare facility while the university has established by upgrading the former Sindh Medical College.”
The spokesperson said the JPMC had become the Jinnah Sindh Medical University’s teaching hospital after the provincial assembly passed a law but no department of the varsity had been established on the hospital’s land.
“The only construction taking place at the JPMC is that of a surgical block that will have at least 18 operation theatres, OPDs and other medical facilities,” he added.
To a query, the spokesperson said the JPMC was established in 1930 on military land well before the creation of Pakistan. Back then, it was known as the Medical Corps Hospital, meant for providing medical aid exclusively to military personnel.
In 1942, it was renamed the British General Hospital. In 1947 after the creation of Pakistan, with the consent of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, it was renamed the Jinnah General Hospital and opened for general public.
Jinnah Sindh Medical University vice chancellor Dr Tariq Rafi too dispelled the impression that the varsity was encroaching upon the land of the JPMC or involved in any construction on the hospital’s land.
“The university has been set up on the Sindh Medical College’s land,” he added.
“The JPMC will only be a constituent hospital of the university as it is in the case of other teaching hospitals in the country.”