Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences

LUMHS is the second oldest medical school in Pakistan and the oldest in Sindh. In 1879, a surgeon general and the Government of Bombay recommended to the Commissioner in Sind to start a medical school. Sindh Medical School was subsequently started by Dr. Homestead and inaugurated by Henry Napier Bruce Erskine, the Commissioner in Sind province at the time, in 1881. 20 students were admitted and imparted with the training of licentiate physicians. The government started regulating the medical school in 1928. After the Medical Council of India decided to upgrade the status of medical schools to degree-awarding medical colleges, a committee was set up in 1941, consisting of Dr. Hemandas Rupchand Wadhwani (Minister of Public Health), Col. J. E. Gray (Inspector General of Civil Hospitals) and Mr. P. W. Abhichandani (Executive Engineer) to make plans for the new medical college. Major (later Lt Col) Aziz Khan eventually led this project.

It was later upgraded to the status of medical college known as Sindh Medical College in 1942. After Sind province got separated from Bombay Presidency, the college started teaching MBBS under University of Bombay. The requirements set by the university to maintain the affiliation led to the college being shifted to Karachi on December 10, 1945, and as a result, it was renamed as Dow Medical College. The Sindh government subsequently restarted the old medical college in the premises of the same civil hospital at Hyderabad in 1951, which acquired its name as Liaquat Medical College (LMC), after the name of first prime minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan. Liaquat Medical College Hospital (later known as Liaquat University Hospital) was simultaneously started in the premises of the university.

The LMC was affiliated with University of Sindh. The college with its journey and natural growth for more than 62 years made contributions in both medical education and health care in the province and the country.

Relocation

The college was shifted to its new campus which spreads over 570 acres at Jamshoro in 1963 as the provincial government found the campus in Hyderabad to be inadequate and not sufficient to meet the demands of a top tier medical college. Faculty of Dentistry was also introduced in the same year after relocation. It became the second oldest and the largest institute of dentistry in the country. Postgraduate courses were also started simultaneously. After an ordinance was passed by Government of Sindh in 2001, it was upgraded to the status of the first public-sector medical university of the country. IT project was approved in 2002. The university was ranked as the second best medical university in Pakistan throughout its initial years after being upgraded by the HEC.

In 2019, the university was made the Admitting University and it conducted the provincial Entry Test to MBBS and BDS through the testing agency of National Testing Service (NTS).

Research and Development

In 2021, the university set up first ever cancer research laboratory in Pakistan.

First ever endoscopic discectomy surgery in any public sector hospital of Sindh was also performed at the university's neurosurgery department.

The university has also taken numerous steps throughout its history to foster research programs.

Journal of Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (JLUMHS) Jamshoro, Pakistan, publishes original manuscripts, case reports and reviews on topics pertaining to medical and health sciences. It is included in Index Medicus for WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region (IMEMR) as well as Embase.