CM KP Inaugurates Academic, Admin Blocks, and High-Tech Laboratory at KMU

The Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan inaugurated academic and admin blocks beside a high-tech laboratory at Khyber Medical University (KMU) Peshawar to ensure the diagnosis of infectious diseases in the province and enable the medics to take prompt measures against outbreaks, he announced the regularization of the contract employees working in PHRL and who are on the payroll of the health department. He also visited the Bank of Khyber newly established booth and planted a sapling at the main campus of the province's lone medical university. 
Mahmood Khan said that the promotion of medical education and improvement in patients' care was the vision of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan, according to a statement. The KMU Vice-chancellor Prof Dr. Zia ul Haq briefed the chief minister on the occasion and appreciated the steps taken by the government for the upgradation of healthcare infrastructure in the province. He said that launching microbiology and serology laboratories would further strengthen Public Health Reference Laboratory and the samples for many diseases would be processed locally. He said that these projects were completed at a cost of Rs690 million.
The chief minister said, “We have provided free treatment to more than one million patients on Sehat Card Plus costing Rs31 billion. This scheme would now be providing free treatment facility of a bone marrow transplant, Thalassemia, and other diseases.” He said that the government earmarked Rs25 billion for a free treatment scheme in the budget while a project worth Rs15 billion was initiated to revamp the non-teaching district headquarters hospitals. The chief minister said that a project for the up gradation and conversion of 200 basic health units and 50 rural health centers into 24/7 health facilities was also underway. 
He said that four new medical colleges in different districts and four tertiary hospitals at the regional level would be established to provide quality healthcare facilities to people at the local level. He stated that the government recruited thousands of doctors and other health workers to overcome the deficiency of human resources in public sector hospitals.
Earlier, Vice-Chancellor KMU Professor Dr. Zia ul Haq while presenting the university's 15-year performance report said that KMU has achieved many milestones during the last 15 years. He said that KMU is one of the leading universities in the country and has recently won the honor of being the best university in the province in the ranking of the Higher Education Department.
He added that during the last two years, sub-campuses have been established in eight districts of the province, including Islamabad, while the number of institutions affiliated with the university has exceeded 200 and the number of students has exceeded 50,000.
He said that under the special patronage of Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mehmood Khan, four billion rupees development projects of KMU have been included in this year's development program, including major projects of liver transplant and bone marrow transplant.
Prof Dr Zia ul Haq said that KMU is the only university in the country where Ph.D in public health, basic medical sciences, nursing and physiotherapy, and advanced fellowship programs are being offered in thirteen fields of clinical sciences.
He said that due to financial discipline, KMU is bearing ninety percent of its own expenses, and further steps are being taken to increase it to 100 percent in the next few years.
The Vice-Chancellor said that on the instructions of the provincial government under the auspices of KMU, the accounts of the University have been transferred to the Bank of Khyber, while in addition to the increase in the general seats in MBBS; BDS, seats have also been doubled for the merged tribal districts.  
He said that KMU is about to cross another milestone by opening its first international campus in Kabul soon, which is a matter of honor for KMU as well as the provincial government. In the end, he thanked the Chief Minister and the provincial government and hoped that this patronage of KMU would also continue in the future.