KARACHI- President Mamnoon Hussain conferred degrees to more than 350 graduates of the Jinnah Sindh Medical University (JSMU) at the first convocation of the university since the act of its establishment was passed by the Sindh Assembly in 2013.
“The medical fraternity should chiefly focus on our disadvantaged areas in the upcountry,” said President Hussain while addressing the convocation held at a hotel.
Organisers said a total of 358 students were awarded degrees. They included six students who received master of health and business management degrees, and another two in master of public health.
The rest of 350 students were awarded MBBS degrees. Besides, 13 of the recipients who took positions in various disciplines were also awarded with gold medals.
After giving away degrees to the successful graduates, President Hussain said in his speech that the emergence of similar diseases with frequent intervals in the impoverished regions of the country should alarm everyone.
He called upon the leaders in the medical fraternity to design an easy model to ensure provision of better health facilities in the remote districts.
“The health care profile of the disadvantaged regions could be improved by providing better neonatal facilities, taking care of everyday illnesses and ensuring better hygiene.”
He asked the health experts to keep their research in conformity with their own environment. “The research should be launched on the grounds that could benefit the people to receive better medical facilities by spending affordable money.”
He also appealed to the doctors to discourage the culture of strikes and boycotts as their profession involved human lives.
He said Pakistan was ready to jump into an era of development and young people should play their role to make that happen.
Dr Tariq Rafi, vice chancellor of the JSMU, said in the past five years, since the university was established, it had established five more institutions, which included a dental college, institutes of public health, pharmacy, health and business management, and a state-of-the-art laboratory. He said the JSMU was the biggest among the medical universities in Sindh in terms of enrolment of students.
“Apart from our own students, we conduct examinations of all the private medical colleges in Karachi, which are affiliated with the JSMU. At present, some 4,500 students are enrolled with us, which puts the university only second nationally after the University of Health Sciences, Lahore,” he said.
He said the students of private institutions were in their fourth year, thus, next year’s convocation would be a much larger event in which those students would also receive their degrees.
