Nishtar Institute Of Dentistry Awaits Regular Principal For Nine Years

Nishtar Institute of Dentistry (NID), the only dental college in south Punjab, has been functioning without a regular principal for the last nine years.

MULTAN, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 14th Dec, 2018 ) :Nishtar Institute of Dentistry (NID), the only dental college in south Punjab, has been functioning without a regular principal for the last nine years.

Since its establishment in 2009 as an independent hospital for dental health, the NID had not been provided a regular principal so far, reliable sources told APP on Friday.

After shifting from Nishtar Hospital, Dr Saeed looked after its affairs for one year, followed by Dr Pervaiz as an acting principal. The other doctors who served the NID as the principal having the additional charge include Dr Sohail, Dr Riaz Warraich and Dr Usman Akhtar, who visits two days a month because of his regular posting at Demont Dental College, Lahore, which is creating administrative and other issues for the institute, the sources said.

The NID is one of the three dental colleges across the province and has 66 seats for BDS students. The Institute is short of faculty also. That's why the students have to go to Nishtar Medical University (NMU) for taking classes of basic sciences including Anatomy, Biochemistry, Pathology, Behavioral Sciences, Physiology and Pharmacology, they added.

On December 11, in a letter, written to the NID principal, NMU Dean of Basic Medical Sciences, Dr Khalid Usman regretted that the BDS students had to attend classes in small classrooms. The university was established in 1953 for a capacity of 200 students while it has to accommodate 325 MBBS students of the first year, besides the BDS students.

He requested the principal to arrange for the BDS lectures at the NID Basic Medical Sciences Department.

When contacted, NID Deputy Medical Superintendent Dr Tariq confirmed to APP that the institute did not have a regular principal for the last nine years.

He said that in Punjab, only three dentists were full professors, and added, that shortage might be a reason for non-availability of a regular principal.

However, he said that the Health Department was reminded of the grave issue many times, but the problem still existed. Owing to absence of regular principal, the NID was suffering a lot, he regretted.

Shortage of faculty is also a big issue at the institute, which needed the authorities' attention on priority because 66 BDS students get admission to the NID every year, he said.