Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The incompetency of the Director General Health Services Academy (HSA) has put in peril the future of thousands of students as he did not get the institution affiliated with the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University(SZABMU).

The Quaid-e-Azam University(QAU) had finished the affiliation of Health Services Academy on January 7, 2014, due to which the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) refused to accept the degrees of Masters of Science (Public Health) and the future of a thousand students was put on the stake.

The council has also informed the management of the HSA that without affiliation with the SZABMU, they would not verify any degree of the academy’s students.

The act regarding the formation of the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University was passed in 2013 after which it was made necessary for all the medical colleges working in Islamabad to get affiliated with it.

The DG of the Health Services Academy, Dr Asad Hafeez, did not comply with the orders even after a lapse of almost three years, after detachment with the QAU.

Now the students of the academy are asking the question from the faculty as well as the administration about which university would issue them degrees and if the PMDC rejects it, then what would happen with their tomorrow.

When Daily Times contacted the Vice Chancellor of the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University, Dr Javed Ikram, he confirmed that the affiliation of the Health Services Academy, which is working under the National Health Ministry had not taken place with the university so far.

When this reporter tried to contact the DG HSA, Dr Asad Hafeez, he did not respond and later on he switched off his cellular phone.

This scribe also talked to the Secretary National Health Ministry, Sheikh Ayub, who said that soon a bill would be floated in the cabinet for the affiliation of all the medical colleges, academies and institutions, functioning in the federal capital with the SZABMU.