Baqai Medical University
Baqai Medical University was founded in 1988 on the outskirts of Karachi, and is ranked number 3 in the HEC rankings for medical universities in Pakistan. Courses are in medicine, dentistry, health management sciences, pharmaceutical sciences, and veterinary science, and there are interdisciplinary courses.HistoryMost medical colleges in Pakistan were set up by the country's Provinces or by the Federal Government, but the history of Baqai Medical University is an example of private enterprise.Dr Fareed Uddin Baqai and his wife Dr Zahida Baqai were medical practitioners and surgeons who had been educated in Pakistan and the United Kingdom and began to practice in Karachi, which at that time was the capital. In the late 1960s, the Baqaians started a private sector hospital in Nazimabad, Karachi, the Baqai Hospital Nazimabad, which became a general hospital with 350 beds and modern facilities aimed at middle-income private patients, also doing charitable work.In the 1970s it was clear that a more massive programme of community development was needed, with medical education built around community development, together with ancillary institutions. In 1976 the Baqai Foundation acquired land on the outskirts of Karachi, on the M-9 Super Highway. There it established Pakistan's first rural medical centre, supported by secondary and tertiary health-care structures. The Baqais founded the Baqai Medical Complex.They convinced the government that health delivery could be through a programme of community-oriented medical education. This stimulated them to plan a medical college, the building of which was started in the 1980s. In 1988, the first MBBS students were admitted, although it was not until 1990 that the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council formally permitted the college to start clinical teaching at Baqai Hospital, Nazimabad. In 1992, the Baqai Foundation went on to establish the Baqai Dental College, the first such college for the huge city of Karachi. A department of Dental Materials was established.
