KARACHI, Faculty members of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) have opposed the move to convert the federal government-run hospital into a constituent hospital of a medical university, proposed to be established under a charter of the Sindh government.

An emergency meeting of the JPMC academic council on Thursday discussed the upgrade of the hospital to the ‘Jinnah University of Health Sciences (JUHS)’, and unanimously resolved that the “JPMC has the prestigious legacy of being the oldest postgraduate medical institution in the country and also has the exalted status of having the name of Jinnah, the Father of the Nation.”

The council re-endorsed the resolutions passed at its April 6, 2007 and November 26, 2008 meetings that a federal government medical university should be established at the JPMC Karachi with its head office in Islamabad as proposed by the director-general of health in a letter dated November 5, 2008 like the Federal Urdu University (Islamabad) with its principal campus in Karachi already having been established.

It was also resolved that the JPMC academic council, faculties and employees should not join any other university, like the proposed Sindh Medical University, proposed to be established at the Sindh Medical College, Karachi.

“The academic council and faculty may accept the proposal of Sindh Medical College, Karachi, for affiliation as a constituent part of the JUHS or otherwise to de-affiliate the SMC, Karachi, and create its own medical college at the JPMC, Karachi.”

According to JPMC sources, the council has lately received information that a group of SMC old boys settled abroad are to meet in Islamabad in a couple of days to revive the issue of upgrading the SMC to the status of a university, particularly at a time when the Sindh government has already upgraded some medical colleges and hospitals to medical universities or degree-awarding institutions. The council has also learnt that some vice-chancellors of the medical universities in Sindh have also been invited to attend the Islamabad meeting, where a top political figure of the country is likely to be present.