ISLAMABAD A Senate body on Tuesday recommended sending a fact finding mission to Cuba to oversee the condition of Pakistani medical students there. The Senate Standing Committee on Education, which met here under the chairpersonship of Senator Razina Alam Khan to consider the plight of the medical students in Cuba, said the mission should include at least one senator as its member. The committee unanimously proposed Dr Kausar Firdous as representative of the Senate in the delegation.

It recommended that Pakistani students studying in Cuba be provided return tickets at least twice during the duration of the course so they could meet their family and their monthly stipends be increased from 50 to 100 euros immediately, besides initiating other measures for their welfare like uninterrupted internet and telephone connections and better transport facilities. The Senate body also directed the Higher Education Commission to take the PMDC on board on the issue. It observed that concerns of the parents must be addressed and allayed.

Earlier, Senator Raza Muhammad Raza, who visited the Medical City in Cuba where the Pakistani students are studying, informed the Senate committee that the curriculum being taught there was different from that of Pakistan and the students had reservations whether they would get medical degrees.

Chairman HEC informed the Senate body that he held three meetings with the Cuban ambassador in Islamabad on the issue, who categorically assured that the Pakistani students would get a degree recognised by WHO and that students of 27 countries are studying there.

The representative of the Ministry of the Foreign Affairs submitted that the FO and the ambassador to Cuba were in touch with the students. We are grateful to the Cuban government for providing 1,000 Cuban scholarships to the Pakistani medical studies, she said.