LAHORE: The Punjab government has given a three-year waiver after the age of superannuation for the appointment of medical teachers in order to address acute shortage of senior doctors in medical colleges, universities and specialised institutions. The chief minister has approved a summary allowing relaxation of upper age limit to 63 years. The summary was sent by the Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education (SHE&ME) department, which has been directed it to fill the vacant positions under the new arrangement as soon as possible. An official privy to this development told Daily Times that special selection boards of all institutions were empowered to make appointment of senior doctors through advertisements in basic and clinical sciences subjects. He said Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has taken stern action against the public medical colleges of Punjab due to a dearth of faculty and imposed fines of millions of rupees. The persistent shortage of senior faculty in the government teaching hospitals has brought many of these facilities to the verge of closure, he said, adding that shortage of faculty particularly in the basic sciences subject had put the future of medical students at stake and noted that medical colleges have been facing a dearth of senior medical faculty. A letter has been issued by SHE&ME stating that the chief minister has allowed recruitment of teaching staff to the level of professor on contract basis after relaxation of upper age limit to 63 years after fulfillment of codal formalities. Initially, the waiver had been granted only to King Edward Medical University, Fatima Jinnah Medical University, Allama Iqbal Medical College, Postgraduate Medical Institute Lahore, Services Institute of Medical Sciences, Punjab Medical College Faisalabad, Nishter Medical College Multan , Rawalpinidi Medical College and Khawaja Safdar Medical College Sailkot. Likewise, he said a professor would be hired for Gujranwala Medical College, Sheikh Zayed Medical College Rayem Yar Khan, Ghazi Medical College DG Khan, Quaid-e-Azam Medical College Bahawalpur, Children’s Hospital Lahore and Multan, Punjab Institute of Cardiology, Multan Institiute of Cardiology, Faisalabad Institute of Cardiology, Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology, and Wazir Abad Institute of Cardiology. Professors would be recruited in basic sciences, including anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, community medicine, forensic medicine, pharmacology and pathology, he said, adding that senior professors will be appointed to teach clinical subjects of anesthesia, cardiac surgery, cardiology, nephrology, paeds surgery and radiology. All the postings will be done on contract basis for three years and the SHE&ME department has issued instructions to the medical colleges to advertise the positions in accordance with the decision of the Punjab government, said the official.