APPNA Summer Journal 2012

APPNA JOURNAL
A BIANNUAL publication of the Association of Physicians of Pakistani-Descent of North America
Volume 14 • Number 1 • Summer 2012
Sa’adat Hasan Manto
Birth Centenary
1912-2012
Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent of North America
APPNA JOURNAL
Volume 14 • Number 1
Summer 2012
A BIANNUAL publication of the Association of Physicians of Pakistani-Descent of North America
EDITORIAL
An Essayist, A Doctor And Our National Identity
We are celebrating, through the pages
of this magazine, the birth centenary of
Sa’adat Hasan Manto, the legendary
Urdu short story writer. He died at a
Tanveer Imam, MD
young age of 43, heart broken and perPublication Committee
secuted by the society he lived in. It is,
Chair
however, heartening to see him resurrected in this age of intolerance. Manto was brilliant, bold and enigmatic and perhaps way ahead of his time. Manto did not take the
events surrounding the partition of India kindly. He never reconciled
with the fact that millions of human beings lost their lives to brazen
fanaticism. In 1948, he left Bombay (Mumbai), the town he grew up
in, and feeling betrayed by his friends migrated to Lahore. His new
homeland was far from welcoming. He was tried and persecuted by
the establishment and the right wing press for obscenity and
debauchery.
national leaders and institutions who are obscurantist, religious bigots and autocratic. The citizens of that great land have sustained loss
of life and property. General insecurity prevails forcing doctors,
engineers and professionals to leave the country. Dr. Aftab Qureshi,
Professor of Neurosurgery at Liaquat University of Medical and
Health Sciences is a recent victim of the prevailing lawlessness. He
was abducted, held for ransom and finally executed by his captives
who, not so unexpectedly, are at large.
Dr. Aftab Qureshi’s abduction and murder has generated severe anxiety and outrage among the physician community of Pakistan. The
Dean of Post Graduate Medical Institute, Prof. Tariq Salahuddin, in
an open letter to The President, Prime Minister and Chief Justice of
Pakistan has asked how the government and state machinery expects
doctors to function in an environment of insecurity and escalating
violence against common citizens? How does the government plan
to stop the brain drain of professionals when it eyes the situation in
complete silence and with indifference? The letter demands answers
and actions to apprehend the culprits and assurance of security for
doctors and other citizens.
While the dwellers of the new nation celebrated its independence
from Hindu dominance, Manto’s short stories such as “Toba Tek
Singh” and “Siyah Hashiye” questioned the nature of our national
identity. His writings pointed towards deep humanistic values that
makes us similar rather than separate from each other and which is
seen across religious and ethnic divide. While Sa’adat Hasan Manto
underwent multiple trials by the establishment and right wing demagogues, his fall out with Progressive Writers Association and its leadership caused him intense pain and a sense of isolation. Post partition, the aims and objectives of the movement and Manto’s liberalism became incompatible and in 1949 at PWA’s All-Pakistan conference, Manto was boycotted by the organization. “Get rid of the
opium of art for art’s sake. Our movement is based on owning,
understanding and respecting the suffering of the masses”, wrote
Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi, the spokesman of the PWA, in an open letter to Manto.
Dr. Aftab Qureshi is not the first doctor who has been mercilessly
slayed by “unknown assailants” in Pakistan. Hundreds of doctors
have lost their lives becoming victim of religious or ethnic bigotry
and of general lawlessness. Multiple doctors in the academia and private sector have lost their lives and loved ones to various mafias. The
violence seems unabated and the law enforcement rudimentary,
except for the ruling elites for whose protection the majority of
forces are deployed. What would become of our nation? We lost
over a million lives creating Pakistan, on whose name are the innocent citizens dying today? Is there another Sa’adat Hassan Manto,
among us, who can probe our conscience? Are there any conscientious writers, journalists and poets who can come together to lead
the society against tyranny? Where are the students, doctors, lawyers
who can raise their voices against injustice? Where are we all? Why
is there a deafening silence? Who is there to wake the nation from its
deep slumber?
Sixty-five years after the creation of Pakistan, we are still trying to
solve the question of national identity and find direction.
Suppression of thought, expression and assembly has produced
APPNA JOURNAL
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SUMMER 2012
APPNA JOURNAL PUBLISHER
The Association of Physicians of Pakistani
Descent of North America
Executive Committee 2011
President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Saima Zafar, MD
President-Elect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Javed Suleman, MD
Immediate Past President . . . . . . . . Manzoor Tariq, MD
Secretary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Asif Rehman, MD
Treasurer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Farid Qazi, MD
Editorial Board
Chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Tanveer M. Imam, MD
Editor-in-Chief . . . . . . . . . . . . . Zimran Chaudhary, MB, BS
Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M. Yaseen Abubaker, MD
Mohammed Nadeem, MD
Shahid Yousuf, MD
M. Shahzad Hasan, MD
Wasique Mirza, MD
Urdu Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ghazala Kazi, MD
Fariya Afridi, MD
M. Amin Gadit, MD
Disclaimer
APPNA Journal is the Biannual publication of the Association of
Physicians of Pakistani Descent of North America (APPNA). The
Journal is dedicated to providing useful information to the Association‘s members with special emphasis on organizational matters.
The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily
represent the official position of either the Association or the Editor.
APPNA does not assume any responsibility for the authors’ assertions nor does it authenticate their validity. Products or services
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APPNA. Reproduction in whole or in part of the materials contained
in this Journal without prior written permission from APPNA is
prohibited.
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and Correspondence
Denise Burt, APPNA Central Office
6414 S. Cass Avenue, Westmont, II. 60559
Phone: (630) 968-8585/ Fax: (630) 968-8677
E-mail: [email protected]
The Editor reserves the right to edit
all submitted material.
Deadlines for submission of materials:
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APPNA JOURNAL
Table of Contents
Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
President’s Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
President-Elect’s Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Immediate Past President’s Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Secretary’s Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Treasurer’s Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Manto’s Ambivalence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
APPNA/PPS Health Center Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Dental APPNA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Book Review: American Manto? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
GPWG ... Investing In Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
APPNA Hepatitis C Awareness & Education Initiative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Detroit Doctors’ House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
A Letter To My Father . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
APPNA Qissa, APPNA Qazzia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
A Surgeon Committed To A Stronger Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Saving Face . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Tiger Man – Change Of Heart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
WAPPNA Report: The War On Women . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Committee Reports
APPNA Annual Literary Award Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26
Committee For Young Physicians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Research, Education & Scientific Affairs Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27
Adhoc Committee For APPNA Free Clinics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Disaster Relief Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Advocacy & Legislative Affairs Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Membership Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Office Management & Oversight Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Constitution & Bylaws Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Social Welfare & Disaster Relief Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Alumni Reports
Aga Khan Universtiy Alumni Association of North America . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Allama Iqbal Medical College Alumni of North America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Dow Graduate Association of North America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Fatima Jinnah Medical College Alumni of North America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36
King Edward Medical College Alumni Association of North America . . . . . 36
Khyber Medical College Alumni Association of North America . . . . . . . . . . 37
Qaid-e-Azam Medical College Alumni Association of North America . . . . 37
Rawalpindi Medical College Alumni Association of North America . . . . . . 38
Photo Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Urdu Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
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SUMMER 2012
President’s Report
Enlighten, Empower and Excel
Dear APPNA Family,
Assalam-O-Alaikum,
Such camps help restore people’s eyesight and arrange surgery
for those who need to be treated beyond that. We plan to
build a village in the flood stricken area, where people are still
living under the mercy of the sky, for two years after the devastating flood.
The year 2012 has been full of
excitement for APPNA. We
have achieved several mileSaima Zafar, MD
APPNA President 2012
stones that have further exemplified APPNA as the leading
organization of members of
Pakistani descent in North America. We remain committed to
our theme for 2012 to Enlighten, Empower and Excel.
Can APPNA helps with Saving Faces? APPNA has formulated
a plan to collaborate with plastic surgeons in Pakistan to treat
the victims of acid and fire related burns. We will have a team
of APPNA plastic surgeons and psychiatrists from U.S.A serve
to transfer knowledge, skill and technology to the centers in
Pakistan. Focus on creating mini fellowships for burn management and telemedicine will be implemented.
At the end of May, our membership stood at 3,348, which is a
17% increase over last year and is the highest since its inception. The Membership Committee did a stellar job marketing
APPNA. A significant part of this success is also attributed to
APPNA’s new registration system in the paperless office,
implemented by the tireless efforts of the APPNA Office
Management Committee and staff. Although we experienced a
number of challenges in upgrading the previous system and
bringing it live, the end product is a remarkable system that is
a quantum leap forward in managing the membership’s needs.
Our commitment to Youth Excellence led us to develop a program during the summer meeting, where 100 youth will go to
the White House and learn about policy making. Additionally,
we will promote networking of youth so they can help each
other progress together.
The planning and execution of the summer meeting is moving
ahead on course in the capable hands of the Host Committee.
To date, we have achieved some record-breaking milestones by
the middle of May: 1) All 1700 hotel rooms allocated to
APPNA were booked; 2) All 2900 of the seats for the Saturday
Banquet were sold out. We have a waiting list of over 600 people, and are looking at alternatives to accommodate them; 3)
Total revenue of $1,300,000 generated; 4) The seats of the
Youth Excellence Program are being rapidly subscribed. We
look forward to a Summer Meeting that is successful educationally, socially and is entertaining for the membership and
their families.
One of our key goals this year is supporting our young physicians in primarily three areas: nurture and support young physicians through networking for electives; expand their housing
options to add subsidized housing for young physicians in
Michigan; facilitating the visa process so they can join their
residency on time. The Young Physicians’ team and Advocacy
Committee has worked hard to accomplish these. We have
made significant inroads in the State Department to streamline the visa processing of young physicians. The best news is
that out of the 16 physicians who were waiting for visa
approval to join their residency programs this year, 14 have
received clearance and one is being expedited. We are continuing to build on our relationship with the relevant officials to
further enhance the visibility and future success for young
physicians’ visas.
As always, I welcome any feedback or input for making
APPNA more dynamic in serving the needs of it’s membership.
God Bless APPNA
Thank you and Allah Hafiz,
Saima Zafar, MD
President, APPNA 2012
Charitable projects are the cornerstone of APPNA. Our Social
Welfare Committee has raised the necessary funds to set up
one eye camp in Pakistan on a monthly basis till year-end.
APPNA JOURNAL
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SUMMER 2012
President-Elect’s Report
Dear Colleagues:
APPNA is doing its best in this situation, but we have much
more potential than what we show. Only if we realize that as
Pakistani American community our destiny lies together, in
our own hands and in our own hearts. We need Unity in our
rows and love and affection in our hearts. Time is passing by
and we need to realize it now!
APPNA represents eighteen
thousands Physicians of
Pakistani descent in North
Javed Suleman, MD
America, with a membership
APPNA President-Elect 2012
base around 2800. It is the
most organized and largest
democratic organization of the Pakistani community. We have
a glorious past with many feathers in our hat.
Three to four times a year, I volunteer my time in a charity
hospital in Pakistan. I see the pain of poverty, malnutrition,
hunger and diseases first hand. I know these have no ethnicity,
race or color. They are in a “race against time” and they are
losing, unless something is done. Yes, we can contribute much
more than what we do now, only if we realize, not just as an
organization but a community.
Every year we conduct elections where members exercise their
democratic right and elect their officials. In the past several
years, time and again we are experiencing an organization torn
by divisions, craving for unity. Sometimes I wonder what different an organization we have become in a time when the
world is more difficult a place for Pakistan or Pakistani origin.
Interests in “Elections” have superseded the interest of the
organization. There are noble agendas and uphill tasks waiting
for hands to do them. It is not that nothing is being done.
APPNA JOURNAL
United We Stand, Divided We Fall.
Truly,
Javed Suleman, MD
President-Elect APPNA 2012
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SUMMER 2012
Immediate Past President’s Report
Dear APPNA Members,
Manzoor Tariq, MD
Immediate Past President
APPNA accounts than mentioned above. When APPNA had to fulfill
its commitment to the HDF for the Ist installment of $264,853.00 in
2011, it was paid as committed in 2010. An additional $64,000 had to
be provided from the general funds. Another explanation for the
SWDRC account not having enough money is that the accountant,
Mr. Lade, did not care to put it in the right account. Neither I nor the
Treasurer or the Chair of the SWDRC was aware of this. In short, the
deficit for HDF installment was fulfilled from general funds. It was the
first loss that became evident among others at the end of the year.
Furthermore, there was a mention of $34,785.00 for the Sind Flood
Project missing. Unfortunately it was never deposited in the SWDRC
account and APPNA should pay this amount to the designated project. We were told on January 27th, 2012 during our EC orientation
meeting that there will be $199.000 in the SWDRC of 2011 account
at end of the year 2011. Among this money, $150,000 is designated
money from Southern CA for the Sajawal Project and remaining
$49,000 was considered for these projects and should have been paid
to these respective projects.
Assalam-O-Alaikum. It is my pleasure to continue serving APPNA
as Immediate Past President. I
would like to take this opportunity
to update you on some recent
issues that you might have received
prior information about.
A few months ago you received a 22-page report from the Treasurer of
APPNA, Dr. Farid Qazi, which was full of errors and allegations. I
must point out that it is not an authorized report of an officer and was
never approved through due process of discussion in the Executive
Committee. An APPNA administrator released it to the Council after
1:00 a.m. on April 28th, 2012. This report was unfortunately and disgracefully released to numerous Internet chat groups, maligning me
and the Executive Committee of 2011 and the whole of APPNA on
the Internet.
I condemn this outright violation of authority and trust placed in us as
officers by the membership. In order to set the record straight, I submit the following.
In order to rectify past issues and straighten APPNA’s status, funds,
and other projects, we had to spend quite a bit of money in 2011.
APPNA had to pay over $55.000 for the past five years’ audit in order
to be compliant with IRS requirements to regain our charitable status,
which was lost during 2010 and our all charitable activities were halted
till we got our charitable status restored. Moreover, APPNA had to pay
its accountant Dave Lade over $35,000 in the form of compensation
and let him go.
The year 2011 was full of hardships for APPNA as our organization
had to rectify many significant issues that APPNA was facing. The
not-for-profit status of APPNA was revoked and we addressed this
issue by completing an audit of the past five years in order to regain
our status. I am proud we were able to do so but it was not easy as it
took a toll on the officers and office staff. In addition, we decided it
was best to let our old accountant go and hire a new accountant at the
recommendation of the Office Management Committee. The monies
collected during the year were erroneously allocated to different
accounts and there were some unavoidable delays in communications
between our events manager and the office on payments of some outstanding bills.
In 2010, APPNA did not pay the rent of APPNA House in New York
for the months of
October, November, and December and the landlord was going to
evict our young
physician. The EC decided to pay that owed rent which was approximately $9,600 and during 2011 rent has been paid on time as promised, totaling over $44,000.
Regardless, we were able to overcome these issues and continue to
bring in funds, host successful meetings, continue previous projects,
and initiate new projects in both the United States and Pakistan.
For the Summer Meeting of 2011, APPNA had to pay the St. Louis
Convention Center over $100,000 through the Renaissance Grand
Hotel to use the facilities, which was agreed upon when contract was
signed long time ago without my involvement as I was not part of the
decision making committee at that time.
Now I shall address some of the allegations in the report.
The most egregious of the allegations is about the SWDRC funds of
$181,000 as being “missing”. Let me explain this false accusation of
stealing of funds. According to the bank account statement for
SWDRC as of December 31st, 2010, we had a balance of $239,803.74.
The outgoing President of 2010 never informed me or Chairperson of
SWDRC of 2011 that there were more charitable funds present in
APPNA JOURNAL
It is evident from the above account that we have to spend more than
$200,000 in 2011 that was unforeseen and was not budgeted for that
(Continued on Page 12)
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SUMMER 2012
Secretary’s Report
Asif Rehman, MD
APPNA Secretary 2012
Assalaam-Alaikum. It is my
great honor to serve APPNA
this year as Secretary. I am
grateful for the trust APPNA
membership has placed in me.
alumni banner, continuing to bring this issue to the attention of
lawmakers as well as having a strong relationship with Senator
Casey who is assisting them. Dr. Manzoor Tariq, chairman of
the Advocacy Committee, was personally involved in all the
efforts, made multiple visits to the State Department and
Homeland Security and was able to successfully help several
physicians in this regard. Although APPNA is making a lot of
progress with this difficult issue, there is still a long way to go.
Our organization has an ongoing dialogue with the State
Department and Homeland Security for young physician’s visa
related issues.
The APPNA EC had officer
orientation in Chicago in
January 2012, where we had a
productive meeting with the office staff. Mr. Harris Ahmed was
invited who met with the EC and gave a presentation about
working and leadership program focusing on the EC. During
this meeting, the EC also highlighted the strategy vision for the
year, which focused on leadership development and improvement on office capabilities. We had three teleconferences; minutes were provided to the EC in a timely manner. All the meetings of the EC were recorded which are now available in the
archives. This year the main focus of the President and the
Chairman Office Management Committee, Dr. Arif Agha is to
improve technical ability of the office and convert it to a paperless office with an upgrade of the website. After completion of
the upgrade, membership verification will be completed on line.
Each member will have access through a password to upgrade
his or her profile. Electronic depositing was started with the
help of the new website. All these ongoing measures are being
done to improve the efficiency of the office.
Hepatitis C project under the leadership of Dr. Maqbool
Arshad, is ongoing in Pakistan and becoming the crown jewel of
APPNA projects. This project is not only focusing on education
but also on prevention, education and hopefully treatment of
this epidemic.
APPNA international trip to Russia was successful with 120
physicians and their families attending under the leadership of
Dr. Riaz Chaudhry. I want to acknowledge our event manager,
Tipu Ahmed for his relentless efforts in arranging a successful
trip.
Under the direct supervision of President, Dr. Saima Zafar, the
leadership development program and mentor program for
young students is underway with significant promise that this
project will help our new generation of students to choose a
career in the United States.
The spring meeting in Las Vegas was extremely successful due
to the excellent job of the host committee. Mr. Rob Nabors,
Director of Legislative Affairs at the White House was the keynote speaker. Mr. Nabors gave the EC and Host Committee an
opportunity to have a round table discussion where the majority of young physician’s issues were brought to his attention.
Nicole Borreca from the State Department gave a 2-hour presentation focusing on how to improve young physician visa and
security related issues.
The Social Welfare Committee continues to complete their
projects that are ongoing in Pakistan and distribute funds,
which were collected for the flood of 2011 and 2012, and supervising several projects in Pakistan.
After four years APPNA is back in Washington DC. As I am
writing this report, preparations for the summer meeting are
enthusiastically under way. It will be under the supervision of
the host committee and Dr. Zahid Butt who has served APPNA
in similar capacity several years ago. We are looking forward to a
very successful and productive meeting.
The Young Physicians Committee and Advocacy Committee
will continue to press the issue for timely clearance of young
physicians. In recent years this has become a major focus of
APPNA. I want to acknowledge the efforts of Dow Alumni
Association and, particularly, Dr. Zafar Iqbal, Dr. Farrukh
Hashmi, Dr. Muslim Jami, Dr. Talha Saddiqui and Dr. Mansoor
Abidi for not only collaborating with APPNA, but under their
APPNA JOURNAL
Asif M. Rehman, MD, FACC
APPNA Secretary 2012
8
SUMMER 2012
Treasurer’s Report
Capitol City & APPNA Summer Meeting
Dear APPNA Family,
Assalam-O-Alaikum,
SWDRC committee has been active in its efforts and has collected
nearly $200,000 and collectables of $100,000 which have been distributed to or supported several projects of APPNA.
Welcome to the Capitol City and
APPNA Summer meeting. I will
Farid Qazi, MD
like to thank and commend the
APPNA Treasurer 2012
Host Committee for their hard
work and efforts, as a result of
which we hope to have one of the best Summer Meetings.
I will like to express my gratitude to members of the Finance
Committee, Cochair Dr. Mubasher Rana, Dr. Masood Akbar, Dr. Azfar
Malik and Dr. Muhammad Tahir; for their diligent work, and invaluable support. One of the major functions of the finance committee is
to ensure the health of APPNA fixed investments, including the Life
Time dues.
It has been an honor to serve as the Treasurer and Chairperson of the
Finance Committee this year. Financial health of the organization is
one of the corner stone of any successful organization. The issues
which we faced at the beginning of the year have been shared with
you. It is unavoidable to mention that at the beginning of the year
APPNA found itself without an accountant, and the organization has
had to replace the book keeper. In addition I did not receive completed accounts for the year 2011. As we work to correct the inherited
issues, I will focus on the report for this year.
On March 31st, 2012 the investment funds of APPNA had U.S.$
1,206,449. It was up by 11.5% since January 2012 Considering the
current market trends, we have not put in more money in the investment as suggested by our financial advisor and would be investing in
small amounts to take benefit of the positive turn of the markets. We
are also awaiting deposits of life time dues from 2011 totaling into the
funds. I am awaiting data from the membership committee and summer Meeting committee on the number of life Time Members in
2012. With the deposits of life time dues from 2011 and 2012 we
expect the APPNA investment funds to be approximately $1.5 million
by July 1st 2012.
One of the major tasks in the beginning of the year was to organize
APPNA accounts so that there is clear identification and management
for monies received for various functions, including charity and
administrative issues. To this end separate accounts were established
in the beginning of the year for SWDRC, various meetings, CME,
APPNA merit and so on.
The summer meeting this year has record attendance and record revenue collection. I am very confident that Dr. Zahid Butt has put a lot of
time and effort in the meeting which would end with record profit as
expected. I am quite confident that you as a member would not be
paying the bills for a Limousine or other extravagant expenditure. I
assure you that there are no free rooms or tickets given out. The executive committee including the president and myself has paid for our
rooms and our tickets.
An audit was initiated in a timely fashion for the accounts of 2011.
The final report of the audit has been delayed due to some of the
accounting issues faced last year; however we expect the audit to be
completed in the early part of June and a report should be available at
the meeting in Washington..
Last but not the least I will like to thank all the members of APPNA
and am humbled by the trust you have placed in me.
It is my pleasure to report that APPNA Spring meeting in Las Vegas
was budget Neutral, and we still have outstanding collectibles of
$12,000, on receipt of which the spring meeting would show a profit.
The International Meeting in May is approximately $47,000 in profit.
Thanks to the good organization by Tipu and Dr. Riaz Chaudhry. The
APPNA JOURNAL
Farid Qazi, M.D.
9
SUMMER 2012
Manto’s Ambivalence
Kamran Asdar Ali
Sa’dat Hasan Manto (1912-1955), the famous
Urdu short story writer, in a non-fiction piece
written in the early 1950s as an introduction
(Jaib-e-Kafan) to a collection of his short stories (Yazid) looks back at the time he
spent in Bombay (twelve years) just
before he migrated to Pakistan. He
writes about the city with warmth and
a sense of extreme loss, yet reconciles
with the inevitable fact that he is now
in Pakistan. But, he says, coming to the
new country was full of uncertainty
and anxiety;
“. . . no one had given it a thought that
after such a revolution things would not
remain the same. Whether small alleys
would become large highways or their
existence would be completely lost, we did
not have an answer. Would there be a difference between the governance by foreigners or by those we call our own, about
this people were not sure either. How
would the new cultural and social atmosphere nurture our thoughts and feelings?
What would be the relationship between
the state, government, community and the individual? These were issues that we needed to seriously concentrate on.”
In addition to the addressing the fracturing of
the social body, Manto’s voice also forces us
rethink the moment in Pakistan’s history
where contesting voices of uncertainty and
APPNA JOURNAL
confusion, against an emerging nationalist
framework, discussed and debated what
shape would Pakistan’s social, political and
cultural life take in the ensuing years. In this
short space I cannot share the entire spectrum of the debate, but to honour Manto on
his hundredth birth anniversary being celebrated this year, let me focus on some of his
Partition short stories to suggest a reading
that partially addresses questions of identity
as it emerged in the post-Partition era.
The Stories
Siah Hashiye, published in 1948, is Manto’s
major book of very short stories that depicts
the absurdness and the arbitrary nature of
partition’s violence. Rather, than present each
and every story, I will share a few of plots in
an attempt to convey the flavor of Manto’s
writing. One story titled, Safai Pasandi (Clean
10
Habits) is about a stationary train (implicitly
during the time of partition) where some
people come and ask about whether there
were any “roosters” around. The passengers
initially hesitate, but then one person answers
that they should themselves look in the trunk
on the berth above them. Armed with spears
some men enter the compartment and break
the trunk, where they find a “rooster”. One
calls out whether he should sacrifice the
“rooster”. The other replies, “no, not here,
take it out of the train, the compartment’s
floor would get dirty.” The story ends
here.
Another story is called, “Sorry”, as in
the English word. It consists of a few
sentences depicting the act of stabbing.
The knife continues beyond the abdomen and cuts open the trousers. “The
killer just says, “uh oh, I committed a
mistake”, leading the reader to believe
that as the trouser falls down the “identity” of the victim is revealed in some
capacity. Yet another story is Munasib
Karawai (the proper decision). The
story opens with a married couple who
after hiding in their basement for several days feel compelled to come out.
They go to their neighbor’s house and
implore them to kill them as they cannot bear it anymore. The neighbors
who were Jains said that it was clearly
against their religion to kill people. After giving the request some thought, however, they
deliver the couple to people in an adjoining
neighborhood who did not share the same
beliefs.
A New Beginning
In the post-partition climate when everyone
was trying to understand or perhaps forget
SUMMER 2012
the carnage of the past year, such pieces of fiction had an uneasy aura about them. These
morally ambiguous and disturbing stories
that most of the time did not mark people
through their religious or cultural affiliations
exposed Manto to criticism from the Left and
the Right. As much as the state took Manto to
court for what it perceived as “obscene” literature, the Progressive writers as well, under the
influence of the radical line of the late 1940s,
also condemned Manto for his anti-humanist
and pessimistic writings.
Yet critics like, Mohammad Hasan Askari,
defended Manto’s writings and its importance
within the genre of partition literature.
Manto’s short stories, Askari argues in his
introduction to Siah Hashiye portray how in
extraordinary times people sometimes have
ordinary habits. If, for example, Askari goes
on, that in unusual times it may be plausible
that someone after killing two hundred people wears a necklace made out of their skulls.
But when, we see that these same individuals
are worried about blood stains on the floor of
the rail carriage, echoing a scene from one of
Manto’s stories (Clean Habits, see above) in
which this carnage took place then, Askari
contends, we are in the realm of the something that shocks us. For a killer to keep on
killing does produce a feeling of disgust, but it
is expected of him. But, Askari asserts, we are
surprised when we observe that people who
retain a sense of aesthetics, a sense of what is
cleanliness, of what is pure and yet continue
to kill.
To have ordinary feelings while committing
extra ordinary acts shows how human beings
can simultaneously have contradictory qualities. This, according to Askari, is the crux of
Manto’s optimism; amongst all the uncertainties and prevailing violence as witnessed during partition of British India, the ordinary and
pure sentiment humans’ posses could not be
crushed. For Askari, Manto does not shame
people or label them as good or bad, rather he
APPNA JOURNAL
portrays how we are pulled back by our core
humanity whenever we commit acts that are
excessively barbaric. Within the parameters of
such an argument Manto, according to Askari
has more faith in human nature than people
give him credit for (this was of course a jab at
the Progressives).
In addition, I would argue Manto also opens
up an arena for us to appreciate the emergent
debate on post partition identity. As we know
the post-independence Pakistani state emphasized national unity on the basis of a single
national language (Urdu) and a unified religious identity (Islam) which remained in conflict with the cultural and linguistic diversity
of the people who had become part of this
new land. I would read some of Manto’s short
stories written after the carnage of 1947 during the early years of Pakistan existence as
representing his already developing ambivalence and uncertainty about the consolidation
of a unitary identity in the Pakistani state. For
example, if we take the short story “Sorry”, it
may not only deal with the similarity and distance between self and the other, Hindu or
Muslim, but it is also about how in the new
country people – much like Manto’s own
uncertainty – were still unsure about who
they were or had become. What lay under the
trouser after the violent act of ripping it open
can of course be read in terms of religious or
for that matter sexual/gender identity. But the
“exposure” or the “unveiling” of what lies
underneath may also be understood as the
ambiguous nature of identity itself in a postcatastrophic moment, the early years of
Pakistan’s history. The act of stabbing had created a fissure and perhaps an open wound
which could not be correctly identified or
healed. These fissures would fester and continue to trouble subsequent Pakistani history,
whether in the form of the struggle of independence in East Pakistan/Bangladesh, or in
the insurgencies for regional autonomy in
Baluchistan or perhaps now with the war in
11
the north-western part of the country.
Conclusion
In Manto I find there is an idiosyncratic and
unpredictable sense of the future which contains within itself political elements that
depend on everyday forms of cultural expression that may not always rely upon fixed categories of institutionalized politics. Manto was
constantly agitated in his writings about settled endings (a hallmark of Progressive literature on Partition, especially see Krishan
Chandar’s, Peshawar Express), in one of his
essays he gives an example of a young middle
class beautiful woman who runs away with a
destitute good for nothing young man. Rather
than moralize about her, he wonders about
her future life and unresolved future. He does
not want her to “come to her senses” as a normative rendition of this story would demand,
rather he shows how desire creates moments
where different histories – the middle class
woman, the underclass man – brush against
each other. By positing the particular life histories and the related counter-logics that
emerge from the “perversities” of such existences, Manto’s intervention is a critique of
teleological thinking that claims to know the
future. In the final analysis, his short stories
written after the carnage of 1947 during the
early years of Pakistan existence should be
read as representing his ambivalence toward
the understanding of human subjectivity, but
also depicting his uncertainty toward the
desire for a unitary identity in the new place
called Pakistan.
Kamran Asdar Ali, a 1987 DMC graduate went
on to study cultural anthropology. He teaches at
the University of Texas, Austin.
SUMMER 2012
APPNA/PPS Health Center Report
Imtiaz Arain, MD, Chair, APPNA/PPS Health Center 2012
on site blood draws, social services, patient
counseling, ophthalmology services.
Patient load has been steadily increasing over
the last few years to the point that we have no
room to accommodate people on Saturdays
only, we See about 20-25 patients on
Saturdays and are planning to open the center
on week days.
APPNA/PPS Health Center located in
Westmont Illinois, nonprofit organization
registered in the state of Illinois.
Center has been in operation since November
2008 serving community at large, regardless
of race, gender, ethnicity and ability to pay.
We do not charge for our services.
Center opened with the help of APPNA and
physicians of the local community who volunteers their time every Saturday from 9 AM to 1
PM. Center is always staff by licensed physician, student volunteers, and phlebotomist.
Onsite services includes patient evaluation
and treatment, prescription medication and
We have broad network of specialist who see
patient off-site on referral basis without any
charge.
We have partners our self with local hospitals
to provide patients with very low cost laboratory and imaging services.
All this would not have been possible without
your support and we are counting on your
support in the future.
Center runs with individual donations and
organizational donations from APPNA and
PPS.
Thanks feel free to call me with questions,
Thanks,
Imtiaz Arain, MD
Chair APPNA/PPS health center 2012
630-476-6250
Due to the increasing demand and adding
more Onsite services, we need to expand the
center to accommodate that.
We also plan to add ENT/Dental services
and specialty clinics in the future.
We are planning to hire advance nurse practitioner to help manage the workflow.
Immediate Past President’s Report (Continued from page 7)
year. I take full responsibility of this unfortunate state of our financial
affairs at the beginning of the year 2012. APPNA’s finances have never
been great at the end of any year let alone 2011 when we had unprecedented expenses to cover. It will be very unfair, to say the least, to
blame last year’s Treasurer for mismanagement. As you can see. he has
nothing to do with the above-mentioned expenses that we had to do
in 2011 for the sake of our organization.
cannot focus on raising funds. I take full responsibility of my decisions
during my presidency. I am responsible for the steps I took and
nobody else should be made scapegoat for political reasons. It is despicable when elected officers who are expected to uphold the trust of
membership fall prey to petty politics and compromise their integrity.
At the end I would like to say that we all should be honest and sincere
to APPNA and its cause. One should not exploit APPNA and its
membership for electioneering and political gains. I recommend that
APPNA should look deeper into APPNA’s accounts for the last several
years to determine our management shortcoming to fix this problem
once for all and the results should be shared with the membership to
uphold our pledges to accountability and transparency.
Another alarming misrepresentation in Dr. Qazi’s letter was in regards
to the Winter Meeting of 2011. He claimed that the Winter Meeting
had a net loss of $12,252.99. However, the Winter Meeting was in reality profitable. The total revenue collected for the meeting was $24,000
and the total money disbursements were $22,000, making the meeting
profitable. I must also point out that QMC, independent of APPNA,
collected and spent over $12,000 for this meeting in Pakistan.
Thank you.
Best Regards,
Manzoor Tariq, MD
Immediate Past President
I have honestly served APPNA to the best of my abilities. I have
always raised funds and brought many unrestricted grants for APPNA
over the past several years, in excess of $300,000. The Presidency of
APPNA gets you involved in so many different directions that one
APPNA JOURNAL
12
SUMMER 2012
Dental APPNA
We Welcome Those Interested To Join
Afshan Haque, DDS
Dental Problems in Children”, sharing his
experience as a pediatric dentist with attendees. In 2011, Dr. Khalid Almas, a periodontist
from Connecticut, gave a brilliant lecture
about the diagnosis and management of periimplantitis.
Dental APPNA is a new member of the
APPNA family. Founded in 2008, by Dr.
Sarwat Iqbal, Dr. Javaid Iqbal, and Dr. Sami
Janjua, Dental APPNA sought to bring
together Pakistani dentists from North
America. Our stated goals are to provide care
for underserved communities in North
America and Pakistan, to provide continuing
education for our members, and to organize
Pakistani dentists to network professionally.
Our current executive team includes myself,
our treasurer, Dr. Mohammad Arshad, and
our secretary, Dr. Lubna Alam. Past presidents, Dr. Tahir Paul and Dr. Sami Janjua continue to remain very active contributors in
our organization.
From the start, Dental APPNA has been
involved in charitable activities in Pakistan. In
2010, we partnered with Shine Humanity to
work in a charitable hospital in rural Kashmir.
Supplies and used equipment from the U.S.
was donated to the dental clinic at the hospital. In 2011, we volunteered at the SOS
Village in Lahore to provide care for the
orphans at this institution. A dental clinic was
founded by Dr. Tahir Paul at the SOS orphanage many years ago. I had the wonderful
opportunity to serve at this clinic for three
months. I was able to provide routine restorations, cleanings, and even root canals and
crowns for the children.
Our luncheons at previous summer conferences were very successful, bringing together
dentists from around the country. It’s at these
meetings that we realize the incredible talent
of our community of dentists. In 2010, Dr.
Tahir Paul gave a lecture entitled, “Common
APPNA JOURNAL
2012 has been an exciting year for us as we
continue to realize our goals as an organization. For the first time, Dental APPNA partnered with Remote Area Medical, RAM,
sending a team of dentists to rural Tennessee.
Dr. Lubna Alam, Dr. Aliya Khan, and myself
spent an amazing weekend helping residents
of this underserved community. Patients of
this area waited 24 hours for care, many
spending the night in the parking lot of the
clinic. Restorations, extractions, and prophylaxis were performed for over 600 patients.
They were also instructed in
hygiene and given samples of toothbrushes and toothpaste. It was an
unforgettable experience for us. We
hope to return next year with a
larger team, inshallah.
Moving forward, we hope to continue to
expand in all directions. With regards to charitable work in Pakistan, we are exploring the
idea of sponsoring a free dental clinic at the
SOS Orphanage in Lahore, Pakistan. We also
plan to continue to work with Remote Area
Medical to assist rural communities in
America that are in need. We hope to continue to develop our CE programs. As a longterm goal, we would like to see Dental
APPNA set up local chapters and form local
study groups.
We welcome those interested to join Dental
APPNA to contribute to our organization and
help us move forward. Please check out or
photos on Facebook to view photos our previous volunteer trips and meetings.
Also for the first time in 2012,
Dental APPNA will be providing
PACE certified credit hours to
attendees. The AGD chapter of
Washington DC has sponsored our
meeting. It’s president, Dr. John
Drumm will be in attendance. Our
lecturer this year is Dr. Faisal
Quereshy, associate professor of
Oral Maxillofacial Surgery at Case
Western Reserve. We look forward
to his talk and once again recognize
the incredible talent of Pakistani
dentists in North America. A networking luncheon will follow the
talk. Dentists will have an opportunity to meet their colleagues from
different parts of the country and
Canada.
13
SUMMER 2012
Book Review
American Manto?
By Nadeem Siddiqui.
American Dervish is a novel written by a first
generation American child of Pakistani parents, who probably immigrated to the U.S. in
the 70s. The setting of the novel is American
suburbia, in the era of Jimmy Carter to
Ronald Reagan transition. It is written in the
first person: the young Hayat Shah is a preadolescent Pakistani-American Catcher in the
Rye, who is growing up and learning about
life, love and religion as the story progresses,
while also absorbing the vagaries and vicissitudes of his immigrant parents’ cultural heritage and milieu. It is clearly the pre-9/11
world, where Muslims are yet exotic to
Americans, and the villains are still Jews, both
for the suburban Christians and Catholics
who are the classmates and neighbors of the
young Hayat, and the innately anti-Semitic
Muslims that his parents (reluctantly) interact
with. Interwoven in all this is an Epic love
story, in the time-honored sub-continental
tradition of forbidden and (eventually) unrequited love, between a Muslim woman and a
Jewish man. All in all, a potpourri of circumstances and situations that serve as a vehicle
for the author to unload his sharp observations about Pakistani and Muslim culture,
with a mixture of humor, wit, and not infrequently, disgust.
APPNA JOURNAL
There are several vividly drawn Pakistani
characters in this novel, starting with the
young Hayat’s dad, the illustrious Dr. Naveed
Shah, who is a neurologist and an academic.
The relationship between his parents is quite
chilly, because of his Mom not taking kindly
to her husband’s womanizing. The parents are
secular, not unlike many upper middle class
Pakistanis of the 60s and 70s generation, who
moved out of the country before the
Islamization of the Pakistani society began in
earnest. Life in this Pakistani family, transplanted to a Midwestern suburban town, is
dull and boring for the young Hayat, until the
arrival of Mina, a vivacious and beautiful
childhood friend of his mother, who arrives
from Pakistan after divorce from her husband,
and ill-treatment at the hand of her in-laws.
Hayat is taken in by her beauty, and develops
feelings for her that he doesn’t quite understand. Mina takes to Hayat, and starts teaching him the Quran. He is in thrall to her, but
she falls in love with a Jewish man who is a
friend and colleague of Hayat’s dad. He is
intelligent and sensitive, and she finds in him
a kindred soul, who loves books and intelligent conversation, and treats her with respect.
Her developing relationship with Nathan is
all a bit too much for Hayat, whose religious
fervor increases as he is all mixed up about his
feelings and desire for a woman whom he
calls Auntie. It is an amalgam of the erotic
and the divine, stuff that Sufi poetry is made
of for hundreds of years. Mina tells Hayat stories about Islam, and Sufi stories, including
one about a dervish who feels that the path to
God lies in negating one’s self completely.
Although the book is titled American
Dervish, which Hayat imagines himself to be,
it is really Mina whose life evolves in a way
that she is reduced to nothing by the time the
story is done.
Almost all Pakistani (and Muslim) men in
this story come out as villains. Shah pere’
treats Hayat’s mom poorly, often gets drunk,
and finds solace in the company of his
mistresses. And yet, he is the one who comes
out as the only sensible man in this sorry
coterie of hypocrites. Even his wife proclaims,
after what happens to Mina, that she “doesn’t
have it so bad after all’. The backdrop to this
(Muslim) men-behaving-badly saga is the
treatment of women in Islam, and the author
quotes chapter and verse from the Quran, as
Hayat struggles to reconcile his rudimentary
religious faith with the horrors he is witnessing at close range. The other theme that runs
through this novel is Muslims’ attitude
towards Jews, their fellow “people of the
Book’. All this is just too much for the young
Hayat, who loses his religion, as he watches
his beloved Auntie Mina disintegrate in selfabnegation and sacrifice, while accepting her
fate as God’s will, and affirming her Sufi faith.
For people of Pakistani origin, and Muslim
immigrants to the U.S. in general, American
Dervish offers a mirror, held up by a child
growing up with his American sensibility,
showing all that is incomprehensible in their
treatment of women and Jews. It is, after-all, a
work of fiction, and individuals reading it will
have to make up their mind about the
author’s intentions, with his very harsh depictions of Islam’s followers, and the response to
their actions by the senior Shah, who has
already turned his back on the faith. Most
first novels are autobiographical, and
American Dervish is probably no exception.
The use of first person narrative (of a child)
limits its author’s ability to offer much by way
of explanation and depth to the events in the
novel, but the story at times feels like a
screed, and one wishes there was more
nuance or ambiguity to the characters and
their actions.
Ayad Akhtar can certainly tell a story, and he
has chosen to show the underbelly of
Pakistani culture in the U.S. in his first novel.
In this regard, he is like the enfant terrible’ of
Urdu literature, Sa’adat Hasan Manto, whose
100 year birth anniversary is being celebrated
(Continued on Page 25)
14
SUMMER 2012
GPWG … Investing In Solutions
Invest. Educate. Advance. Peace. Global Challenges. Local Solutions.
Sarwat Malik MD, FACP, Co-Founder, Global Partnership for Women & Girls / www.gp4wg.org
GPWG Pilot Project #1
Transformative Curriculum Reform In Girls’ Madarasas
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Preface
Women have extraordinary opportunities to
change their communities. They play a positive and an important role in society and represent an untapped potential in creating
peaceful families, communities and societies.
No country can reach its full potential without full and equitable participation of its
entire population. While the challenges are
global, we believe the solutions are local.
There is a broad consensus that investing in
women is not only a good social policy, it is
“smart economics”. GPWG supports women
to become educationally and economically
advanced and empowered stakeholders and
change agents. Educating girls and women
has a multiplier effect, including lower fertility, delayed childbirth, reduced maternal and
child mortality, better health and education.
At the macroeconomic level, female education is a key source of support for long-term
economic growth. In emerging economies,
greater investments in female education could
yield a “growth premium” that raises the GDP
growth.
Program
In February 2011, GPWG* in partnership
with International Center for Religion and
Diplomacy (ICRD) now called Peace and
Education Foundation (PEF), and the
University of Peshawar in the Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan facilitated
APPNA JOURNAL
a first of it’s
kind “four-day
training workshop” for 35
female madrasa
teachers and
administrators
in collaboration with a
local girls’
madrasa. Modeled after a similar impactful
program for men, this workshop was held at
the Jamia Ayesha Lil Banat in Abbottabad, to
avoid the challenges of traveling for many
women.
Participants included 35 female teachers and
madrasa leaders representing four of the five
Islamic schools of thought, which run madrasas in Pakistan (Deobandi, Barelvi, Jamat-eIslami, and Ahle-Hadith), four districts in
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Abbottabad,
Mansehra, Kohistan, and Haripur), and 27
different madrasas. Participants ranged from
19 to 45 years of age and from 1 to 20 years of
teaching experience. The diversity of this
group in terms of sect, age, and experience
was ideal for creating a dynamic and diverse
training environment in which the participants could learn from each other as well as
the trainers.
The experiential interactive workshop was
designed to:
• E
nhance global security in partnership with
religious and civic organizations, by advocating and promoting expansion of the
madrasa curriculum to include the scientific and social disciplines, with a special
emphasis on religious tolerance and human
rights (particularly women’s faith based
rights) and opportunity for interaction
among teachers from a variety of schools of
thought.
• P
rovide a better understanding of their
field from a theoretical and practical
15
perspectives and exposure to new dimensions of modern research in religious studies and interaction.
• E
ncourage the adoption of pedagogical
techniques that can promote critical thinking skills among the students.
• C
onvey conflict resolution and dialogue
facilitation skills.
• E
quip newly-trained teachers with the
skills to train other previously uninvolved
madrasa leaders in these same areas.
By providing madrasa leaders the opportunity
to discuss and reflect on Islamic principles
with leaders of other sects, often for the first
time in their lives, this program is fostering
peaceful coexistence among these diverse
groups. It is also encouraging greater adherence to the principles of tolerance and human
rights in Islam, with an emphasis on how
these values were successfully upheld in past
Islamic civilizations.
Impact
In follow up to one of the training programs
for female teachers of girls’ madrasas, a
Punjabi village hosted a gathering of over 200
female madrasa, parliamentary, and civil society leaders, who issued a declaration, condemning religious intolerance and the killing
of members of other faiths or sects as being
un-Islamic and committed themselves to
working to end hatred and extremism. In
addition, several madrasas have opened their
first-ever vocational training centers for
female students, setting an important precedent for other female madrasas.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world.
Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”
—Margaret Mead
*In 2012 the Fund was named Global
Partnership for Women and Girls to reflect it’s
global focus.
SUMMER 2012
APPNA Hepatitis C
Awareness & Education Initiative
Maqbool Arshad, MD, Chair, APPNA Hepatitis C Initiative
On March 5-6 2012, APPNA and Islamic Relief sponsored
an invitational conference on Hepatitis C at the PC Lahore
to address the issue and strategize a multipronged
approach to deal with this epidemic.
The conference was attended by representatives from ten medical institutions, experts in
epidemiology, hospital infection control officials, blood bank representatives, the national
transfusion authority director, representatives
of major NGO’s working in the field, our educational partners, as well as representatives
from the provincial and national legislature.
We have compiled the presentations from the
conference along with the pertinent recommendations, and we plan to publish it in the
next few weeks to be shared to the public in
order to further the efforts in controlling the
spread of Hepatitis C.
This work is now being spread to district hospitals and rural schools. We have two coordinators working full time in Pakistan to enroll
an expanding number of educational and
medical institutions to adopt our modules
and spread the message of prevention.
The Hepatitis C awareness online presentation has been recorded (through Cisco systems) and are now available nationwide at the
CARE schools. We will also now be able to
reach people in remote areas of Pakistan areas
via the internet in order to educate them
about the disease. This is done with the help
of the CARE Foundation. CDs will be sent to
places where there’s no internet availability.
APPNA JOURNAL
The Health Foundation (THF), in collaboration with APPNA, has initiated a Hepatitis C
awareness campaign starting from the
Korangi area of Karachi. THF is disseminating the information provided in the APPNA
printed educational materials to various
schools within the community.
The APPNA Hepatitis C Initiative has produced eight Hepatitis C awareness animated
videos to be run in hospital waiting rooms,
schools, cable TV etc. In this regard, Shifa
International Hospital-Islamabad has already
started to screen these messages on TV
screens installed in their waiting rooms. We
have also approached Quad-e-Azam
International Hospital-Islamabad to run animated videos in their waiting rooms.
Ayub Medical College-Abbottabad is about to
start a student-run awareness campaign in
their surrounding areas. The printed material
has been sent to the campaign supervisor Dr.
Noaman Siddiqui, Coordinator/Department
of Medical Education.
Maj. Gen. Dr. Hamid Shafiq is supervising
another APPNA Hepatitis C awareness campaign at the Military Hospital-Rawalpindi. It
is expected that a huge daily patient traffic at
MH will be educated through posters, brochures, and animated videos.
16
Positive inroads have been made to organize a
day long Hepatitis C awareness session at
Cadet College-Hasanabdal. The proposal has
been shared with the institution’s board and
the campaign is likely to be started as soon as
the summer break is over.
Foundation University Medical CollegeIslamabad, where a group of students under
the supervision of Maj. Gen. (R) Dr. Tassawar
Hussain (Head of Department of Medicine),
is planning awareness activities in schools to
spread the message. Two schools have been
chosen in Rawalpindi.
The Hepatitis C campaign at Fatima
Memorial Hospital-Lahore, and Gulab Devi
Hospital-Lahore (a major chest and thoracic
surgery center) is planned to start in a few
weeks. The Hepatitis C campaign at All the
Army Managed Schools-Lahore, had took
place through presentations and material distribution. The LACAS school system in
Lahore will make our Hepatitis C material a
part of their curriculum. Meetings are underway to decide the specifics.
SUMMER 2012
Detroit Doctors’ House
A Valiant Effort By A Conscientious Doctor
Ayesha Najib, MD
Many of us came to this country with nothing
but our degrees, dreams and a little money in
our pockets. Matching in a residency position
changed our lives forever. The process of
obtaining a residency spot has changed radically in recent years. The process has become
so competitive that in most instances, having
some kind of U.S. experience is a must; this
may be in the form of a clinical rotation,
observer ship or research. APPNA Doctors’
House in New York, Iqbalian and
KEMCAANA Doctors’ House in
Philadelphia are such places for candidates to
board during this arduous process.
Recently, I learned of a unique Doctors’
House in Detroit that is not funded by any
organization. I first heard of Dr. Majid Aized
last year, when I noticed a regular donation
coming into our PayPal account for
KEMCAANA Doctors’ House from a nonKEMCOLIAN. I discovered that he is a
Nishtar Medical College graduate, currently
in his second year of Surgery residency at
Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.
I was surprised that someone with a resident’s
salary was being so generous towards our
project. I wanted to find out more, and am
honored to share my conversation with him.
Majid’s story starts in Multan. After graduating, he decided to pursue medical training in
United States. Neither Majid nor any of his
friends had any idea which city or state to
choose for the CSA. Unfortunately, when
graduating from an overseas medical school,
there is no “manual for applying for U.S. residency.” Majid called a close friend Muzammil
who guided them through every step. He
briefed them on the exam and advised testing
in Philadelphia, where he lived and offered to
house Majid and his friends.
It was not easy for Muzammil. He had volunteered to make the three-hour drive and pick
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all four doctors in a rental car. Waiting for
him was nothing but pure agony for Majid.
Will he come? Where will we stay? And how
long will our funds last? Muzammil had
arranged an overnight stay at another friend’s
home for the first night. Majid recalled, “The
next morning we started our struggle to find a
place to stay. We figured out in which geographical area we wanted to live temporarily
to take our CSA. Finding accommodation
was the most difficult issue to resolve. We had
to pay a security deposit and rent. It cost us $
2500 in the first month. It was not easy for us.
We had to scrape every last bit of money we
had to rent an apartment in the University
City area in Philadelphia.”
Majid’s empathy is heartfelt when he said,” I
did not want others to go through what I went
through. I put together a map with directions
for new arrivals to get to our apartment, which
included details of every train and bus number
to get them from JFK to Philadelphia.”
Majid found a research position in General
Surgery at The University of Pennsylvania
and remained in Philadelphia for a year. Soon,
he started getting calls from new graduates
who wanted to come to Philadelphia and
needed a place to stay. He worked tirelessly to
find accommodations for incoming young
graduates from Pakistan, which was challenging, given his small rental unit. He helped as
many as he could and recognized the need for
a permanent place for graduates in
Philadelphia. Soon after, he received a call
from Dr. Waqas Khan who was working with
Dr. Masood Akbar, exploring the idea of starting a Doctors’ House in Philadelphia.
Majid was fortunate enough to find a postmatch position in General Surgery, and since
then, he has dedicated his life to helping others in a similar position.
Majid’s selfless work did not end after the
match. While working as a surgical intern, he
impressively found the time and energy to
help thirty young physicians from Pakistan in
the last year and a half in Detroit. He has
helped them with accommodations, finding
research or observer ship opportunities; six of
them pre-matched. A unique challenge for
Majid was finding accommodations for four
17
female graduates, which he was able to
arrange with the help of some female residents. Currently, there is no such facility for
women in U.S.. Majid gets six to seven calls
from female physicians every month. He is
frustrated that he cannot help them.” Boys
will find a place to stay, it is girls who absolutely need our help”, he implored.
Majid has established Doctors’ House
Detroit; it consists of three apartments, which
he has rented. Currently there are twelve male
physicians staying here, one female physician
is staying with Sarah Tehseen, a Pediatric resident at Children’s Hospital of Michigan. The
units are conveniently located within walking
distance from the three Wayne State
University Hospitals. He pays the security
deposit, which is $400. Residents are asked to
share the cost of rent, Internet and groceries.
These are unfurnished units, thus residents
must bring their own bedding whenever possible. In between juggling his busy residency,
Majid helps these residents with weekly grocery shopping as well. The average resident’s
monthly expense is $ 300 per month, which is
a huge financial burden for these young men.
His house welcomes students from all
Medical Schools in Pakistan.
Majid has a network of young medical residents who have been extremely helpful.
Moreover, he hopes physicians who have
been helped by his house will donate in the
future to other young graduates.
Dr. Majid Aized is an inspiring young man. It is
hard to fathom how much he has achieved in
such a short time, both professionally and philanthropically. His tireless efforts are inspiring,
and a call to the rest of us. Majid has recently
received help from APPNA. He is currently
renting five subsidized apartment, they have
been sponsored for one year by KEMCAANA.
One apartment for females is sponsored by
WAPPNA. Each one is donating $350 per
month to subsidize one apartment.
There are few people better deserving to be
spotlighted and I write this in hopes that
Majid will continue to receive support from
our APPNA community.
You may contact Majid at
[email protected].
SUMMER 2012
A Letter To My Father
Jamshed Bashir, MBBS
deaf, could hear what you wanted to hear. I
worry about your driving though, but you
insist that it was better than mine, reminding
me of the time 3 years ago when I struggled
to drive in Karachi without honking. Now
you take your grandchildren to school regularly, dodging the chaotic traffic and luckily
this has been uneventful.
Dear Papa
When I rang you today, you were full of
beans, as usual. You admitted you were considering getting a walking stick, now that you
were 83, but worried that people will think
you were old and this was putting you off the
idea. However you chuckled when you
remembered going up the elevator in a big
store recently, when you wondered who the
ancient dinosaur was, that looked familiar
before realising it was your own image in the
big mirror. You admitted that you were getting a bit slow and laughed when I quoted
Ghalib’s couplet,
“Muzmahil ho gaye qavaa Ghalib
Ab anasir mein aitidaal kahaan”
You said you were getting forgetful and concerned you might lose your way back when
you go for your early morning walk, but then
joked that if it happens we should put up picture-posters of you on the lamp-posts with a
message that if anyone finds this man, they
should take him to their own home and keep
him there, but be warned that he liked
Parathas for breakfast and was fond of watching wrestling on the TV. Encouragingly, your
forgetfulness is unlikely to be a symptom of
anything sinister as you have been forgetful
for as long as I can remember, frantically
looking for your glasses when they were
perched at the tip of your own nose.
Ammi said that you were getting hard of hearing but you insisted you were fine, daft not
APPNA JOURNAL
Ammi can go out and meet people but I
worry about you as you cannot strike up random conversations with strangers or engage
in small talk, devoid of intellectual challenge.
You do not find anyone nowadays to argue
about religion, god or intricacies of Persian or
Urdu poetry or even politics. Ammi does not
share your interests and I cannot indulge you
as often as I would have liked. You go to the
local mosque only on special occasions and
do not wish to start regular prayers at this
stage in your life, even for communal purposes, which restricts your social circle
immensely. You invoke Baba Daani, the
elderly godless sage in your village who justified his non-adherence to the rituals by saying, “na gunah kerdey aan, na namazaan perdhey aan” (neither do I commit any sin, nor
pray to beg for mercy). In fact the local
preachers suspect you of being an odd-bod,
who always argues with them on some frivolous issue, without letting them in on the
secret that you consider the whole faith
caboodle to be based on a false pretence. Yet
you remain extremely interested in religion,
and translated quranic verses, quoted from
Shibli’s Seerat-un-Nabi and Tafseer-ibn-eKaseer, when arguing with me, when I, as a
teenager embraced religion, as a direct reaction to your atheism.
You used to be an avid collector of books and
a voracious reader, but you do not read much
these days and appear to have lost your appetite. However, you continued to read Dawn
regularly and discussed Cowasjee and Amir
18
Ayaz, when he wrote for the paper, but lately
you have stopped scanning the papers as well,
which worry me immensely. I wonder if it is
due to the gloomy headlines, which drag your
spirits down. I am sure you will quote some
shair if asked, although my favourite would
have been,
Pehle devaana bana detey the logoan ko haseen
Aur ab shehr ke haalaat bana detey hain
Although we cannot meet as often as I, and
you, would like to, due to compulsions of
modern life (makroohaat-e-dunyavi) and now
that I am a husband and a father, I must be
grateful for small mercies and rejoice in these
moments when we can still speak over the
telephone and share a shair or a joke, whenever we want. I remember Barri Ammi could
not remember faces and names when she was
old and it was painful to speak to her over the
phone and although you refuse to start
Sudoku as I continue to suggest, I am glad
that you are healthy in body and mind and
can still crack a joke and laugh heartily at
mine.
Although you were brought up in an era when
fathers remained rather aloof from their children who were invariably their mother’s
responsibility and although you have been
overly restrained in expressing emotions
openly, have never said that you loved me, as
Dads never did and children had to deduce
from various other acts of kindness that their
fathers loved them, I belong to a new era and
hope to be a new Dad and a new son. It may
be embarrassing for a 50-year-old son to
admit, but admit I will, loudly and clearly.
I love you Papa.
I may even post you this soppy letter, one day.
SUMMER 2012
APPNA Qissa, APPNA Qazzia
S. Amjad Hussain, MD
The fault, dear Brutus is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
Julius Caesar (Act 1, Scene ii, 140-141)
four interconnected turning points in the history of APPNA: making nominating committee irrelevant, unbridles advertisement,
attempts to make APPNA a religious organization and a tendency to sue APPNA.
For the past many years, as APPNA elections
approach, the contestants start a campaign of
self-promotion and at times try to discredit
their opponents. Occasionally there are hints
of financial misappropriation and breach of
trust. The accusations and counteraccusations detailed in recent letters to members are
but one example of the state of affairs we are
facing in APPNA. I have no idea or information if there was misappropriation or misplacement of $180.000 from APPNA coffers.
There do exist mechanisms within APPNA to
look into such things. But this is not the subject of my essay. Instead I wish to discuss
issues that, in my opinion, have marred
APPNA in recent years.
How did we get to this juncture where trust,
dignity and humility- hallmark of leadershave become casualties of big egos, empty
minds and deep pockets?
This association was, for the first 20 years of
its existence, an example of fairness, courtesy,
trust and genuine fellowship. The nomination
committee representing a cross section of
membership picked a slate of officers that it
its judgment best served the organization.
Elections were held in an atmosphere of
respect and fairness, and all parties accepted
the outcome. There was no pre-election rush
to sign up new members with questionable
qualifications. The spirit of APPNA was the
moral compass that guided everyone. APPNA
was a professional organization organization
like the American College of Surgeons,
American Medical Association or any of the
specialty societies.
I can pinpoint the current state of affairs to
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1. The Bylaws provide that the nominating
committee would select a slate of officers.
However to safeguard against any possible
bias on the part of the nominating committee,
an alternate pathway was provided. A candidate could get on the ballot if he or she had
the written support of fifteen members of the
association. This back door entry, provided as
an exception, has now become the main pathway to nomination.
2. With the certainty of getting on the ballot,
the candidates started to launch a full blown
political campaign involving letters, glossy
brochures and personal phone calls that
would put any professional telemarketer to
shame. A new low was reached a few years
ago when candidates started appearing on
ethnic cable television channels.
3. Some elected officers believed that it was
their mission to force an Islamic identity on
APPNA even though APPNA is, and has
always been, a secular organization. In one of
the annual dinners the then president
declared, “Alhamdo Lillah, we are all
Muslims”.
Perhaps he did not know or did not care that
APPNA has on its rolls non-Muslim members
as well. Where is the sensitivity, pray tell,
towards our fellow members who happen to
be Pakistanis but profess to a different faith?
The rise of Islamic orthodoxy in Pakistan and
in turn in APPNA can be traced to the generation that grew up in Pakistan under Zia ul
Haq’s xenophobic rule (1979-89). It led to
the rise of religious high-handedness on college campuses where it was not uncommon
for religious bullies to beat up fellow students
who did not conform to “true Islam” as
19
determined by the self-appointed and selfanointed custodians of the faith. Part of that
generation came to America and is now part
of APPNA.
4. Another curse afflicting APPNA is the tendency to drag APPNA into a court of law
when election results are not to the liking of a
losing candidate. In the past ten years APPNA
has been sued a number of times. One would
expect our leaders to be humble in victory
and magnanimous in defeat.
This poses an inevitable question: why do
people want to become president of APPNA?
It is expensive (by some estimate it cost
$100,000) and once in office, the job involves
dodging bullets and putting out fires. Nothing
significant gets accomplished except staging a
spectacular annual mela which is always big
on glitz and short on substance. I have never
heard any of our APPNA leaders talk about
their vision of a future APPNA. They all live
in the moment. A past president of a recent
vintage said it correctly that it is the prestige
of leading an organization like APPNA that
compels many to seek its presidency.
It perhaps gives them an enhanced sense of
self-worth. Whether it is making a grand
entrance to the beat of a dohl or giving away
umpteen awards in the presence of thousands
of people at the Saturday night banquet, the
same sense underlines and accents the need. I
wonder if in not too distant a future, presidents would be brought in a palanquin or riding a white stallion with a troupe of bhands
and jugglers leading the way.
Enough of present and past history and diagnosis. What about treatment?
We can chose to do nothing and let this theater-of-the-absurd take APPNA to new
depths. Or we find courage, stiffen our backs
and help change the course. I believe the time
(Continued on Page 25)
SUMMER 2012
A Surgeon Committed To A Stronger Society
Being in the world’s eye only makes Jawad more forthright with his incisive insights
By Malavika Kamaraju
“Dubai Long live plastic surgery!”
That’s how Dr. Mohammad Jawad concludes
his email interview.
It’s entirely understandable. His call to glory
works at different levels. He says it as much
for himself as for the hundreds of people who
are helped by it everyday. The latter category
however does not comprise of people who
feel their nose needs a slight tilt to the right
or their lips need more plump and pout.
Fortunately, the science and
art of plastic surgery long ago
shed its image as a creature
that slithers along the hushed
corridors of posh clinics catering to rich people with poor
self-esteem.
film as an opportunity to tackle a serious
issue. “I will encourage people to help identify weaknesses in [Pakistan’s] society and
find solutions. We must rise to such issues,
learn, resolve and move on.”
The mood at the Oscars for Saving Face he
says was of hope, encouragement and
empowerment for women in Pakistan.
“Sharmeen’s message was loud and clear, and
very powerful.”
The power of plastic surgery
to reshape and rehabilitate
trauma victims is, happily, a
universally understood reality
today.
Dr. Jawad, a Karachi-born and currently
London-based plastic surgeon is no stranger
to fame. In 2008, his efforts at reshaping and
rehabilitating Katie Piper, a well-known UK
model and TV presenter earned him worldwide acclaim. (Piper was a victim of an acid
attack by her ex-boyfriend. After her successful rehabilitation by Dr. Jawad, she went on to
set up the Katie Piper Foundation to help
burn victims).
The idea of projects like Saving Face he says
is not, as some critics have pointed out, to
brand a whole society but to identify an issue,
address it and show some great results. “We
all have to first acknowledge that we do have
a problem in some parts of society,” he says.
“It’s not a part of a national identity. It’s a
man-made disease. We need to have prevention, legislation, restoration, state-support
and psychological rehabilitation.”
Turning Point
His emotional attachment to Pakistan is deep
and strong and he says it is important to participate in the transfer of skills so the country
can benefit from contemporary knowledge
base. The process, he believes, should be a
sustained one. “I benefited from state-sponsored, almost free graduate education. It provided me the platform to build my career.”
The experience was a turning point in Dr.
Jawad’s career. Soon he would find himself
helping women in Pakistan who were victims
of acid attacks.
Exuberant at the Oscar win, he urges everyone to look at the concerns exhibited by the
APPNA JOURNAL
20
He rues the issue of brain drain and says he
would like to see the knowledge circulate
back to Pakistan. “The gap is getting wider
and wider. We must address this together as a
society. How best can we overcome our shortcomings?” Many people, he says, are doing it
in individual way. “I plan to get them together
on a platform in a more sustainable and verifiable way so we can monitor the success of the
skills transfer.” The euphoria of the Oscars is
settling down. After this extraordinary
achievement, it’s time to get
back into the operation theatre
and pick up the scalpel again,
he says. His unswerving passion for reconstructing the
hopes and dreams of his
patients runs on a trajectory of
its own. He may from time to
time find another trajectory,
powered by a blaze of fame
like the recent one, crossing
his own but his momentum is
self-driven.
“Sometimes wishes and dreams come true,”
he says, referencing his ambitions as a young
surgeon who wanted to interact with the
glamorous and glorious people if he took up
plastic surgery. “I was amidst the most celebrated and glamorous people in the world
[for the Oscars].” But the dream realisation
has another dimension to it. It also came true
perhaps because, as he puts it, “it was part of
an attempt in restoring the glory of the
human spirit.”
(Reprinted through permission by Dr.
Mohammad Ali Jawad)
SUMMER 2012
Saving Face
Pakistan’s Fame Or Pakistan’s Shame
Izhar Khan, MBBS, MRCP
On a warm March afternoon in Rome, a 35
year old woman leaps to her death from her
sixth floor apartment. The news of her death is
covered by the Italian media for a few days and
is then quickly forgotten. Thousands of miles
away her family in Pakistan prepare to repatriate her remains to her homeland where she is
interred. Not much of a fuss is made in
Pakistan, except in some media outlets and the
blogosphere where her tragedy is highlighted
and the incidence is soon forgotten. After all
why would the chattering classes concern
themselves with the suicide of a courtesan?
Thirteen years before her death when she was
18 Fakhra Younas (the suicide victim) lived
and worked in Bulbul Bazaar, in Karachi’s red
light district of Napier road and like many of
her fellow courtesans she earned a livelihood
from mujras (dance) and entertaining
Pakistani men, mostly the rich and the powerful, including the political feudal elite who
occupy the moral high ground in Pakistani
society. Amongst her admirers was a man
called Bilal Khar, MP from Muzzafargarh and
scion of one of the most powerful dynastic
political feudal families of the Punjab. His
father Ghulam Mustafa Khar was an ex-governor of the Punjab and his cousin Hina
Rabbani Khar is the current Pakistani Foreign
Minister in Zardari’s cabinet. The young
besotted Khar soon married Fakhra and once
his initial infatuation was satisfied the marriage soured, resulting in domestic abuse and
torture and eventually divorce. Fakhra moved
in with her mother along with her five year
old son from a previous relationship.
The feudal Pakistani man finds it hard to
accept rejection and with encouragement and
tacit acceptance by their own families, sometimes ironically including their mothers and
sisters and by mullahs who sanction violence
and domestic abuse, justifying it by their
interpretation of Quranic injunctions on
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chastising wives, often resorts to extreme acts
of violence on the woman who spurns his
affections or whom he deems has brought his
“izzat” into disrepute. One morning there was
a knock on Fakhra’s door and when she
opened it a man threw a liquid on her face.
Her five year old son witnessed the attack.
She describes these events in her autobiography “Il Volto Cancellato” (The Erased Face).
The liquid was a corrosive acid which mutilated her face severely. Although she survived
the attack, she had to spend many months in
intensive care. Her alleged attacker, Bilal
Khar, used his family and political influence
to get the charges dropped and Fakhra
embarked on a journey of suffering and pain.
Fakhra Younus was helped by Ghulam
Mustafa Khar’s ex wife and women’s right
activist Tehmina Durrani, who wrote a book,
My Feudal Lord, a damning indictment
which exposes the brutality towards women
of the male and mullah dominated Pakistani
Muslim society. She arranged for Fakhra to
receive asylum in Italy, where with the help of
charitable organisations Fakhra received support and surgical treatment.
One of her doctors was quoted as saying, “I
may have healed her physical wounds somewhat but her spirit will never be healed”.
Tehmina Durrani, in the Pakistani news site
News Daily wrote, “At the young age of 22 an
acid attack left her only marginally alive, her
horrific mutilation disfigured her so completely that she was now confronted by open
disgust and contempt by everyone who set
eyes on her in Pakistan. She also became a liability to her own family for whom she was
once a source of income.
“I have met many acid victims. Never have I
seen one as completely disfigured as Fakhra.
She had not just become faceless; her body
had also melted to the bone. Despite her stark
and hopeless condition, the government of
the Islamic Republic of Pakistan was not in
the least God-fearing. She was provided nothing . . . but disdain . . . and trashed.”
According to the women’s organisation, Aurat
Foundation, in 2011 there were 8,500 acts of
acid throwing, forced underage marriage and
severe domestic abuse on women in Pakistan.
21
This is most likely to be an underestimate as
many women for fear of reprisals and perceived shame fail to muster courage to report
these cases.
Despite her suffering, Fakhra continued for a
few years to defy her attacker and struggled to
survive with her disfigurement and pain. Her
country introduced a new law ensuring maximum imprisonment for perpetrators of acid
attacks and she continued to believe that one
day her attacker would be brought to justice.
A month before Fakhra’s violent death the
Pakistani/ Canadian film maker Sharmeen
Obaid Chinoy was given an Oscar Award for
her documentary Saving Face, which
describes the plight of Pakistani acid attack
victims and the charitable work of a UK
based Pakistani doctor, Mohammad Ali
Jawwad who has treated some of these
women. It was hailed as a great Pakistani success and ironically even the Birkin bag carrying foreign minister, the cousin of Bilal Khar
honoured Chinoy for her work. Before her
tragic death, Fakhra expressed concern that
her case had not been highlighted by Chinoy.
The film Saving Face has received deserved
international acclaim for highlighting the
plight of Pakistani women, not that the world
needed reminding of their suffering, but winning the Oscar raises some uncomfortable
questions for Pakistanis. Should they be celebrating the award as has been seen in popular
media or should they hang their collective
heads in shame? I for one belong to the latter
category. I do not know what the designer
clothes clad Hina Rabbani Khar feels towards
her cousin, perhaps deep down she hates or
even fears him, and frankly I do not care. But
seeing her smiling with head held high while
awarding an honour to Chinoy made me feel
a tad ashamed of being associated with
Pakistan. Perhaps Chinoy’s stature would
have increased had she refused the honour
from someone so closely associated with
Fakhra’s tormentor.
And will all the publicity surrounding the film
help bring Fakhra’s attacker to justice and end
this vile crime in Pakistan? I doubt it very
much. That would first require extensive surgery on the corroded, disfigured face of
Pakistani society.
SUMMER 2012
Tiger Man – Change Of Heart
Furrukh Sayyer Malik, MD, FACC
squeezed my hand and held it for a minute
longer forcing me to look in his eyes and reassure him that we knew what we were doing, at
least for then. The world of transplant cardiology is a microcosm of intense relationship
between physicians and transplant candidates.
Sometimes we become part of their personal
lives at levels, uncomfortable at time.
“This is not fair, doctor.” I stood next to her,
holding her cold trembling hand. My voice was
shaking trying to undo the unfairness of it all.
Her fiancé, Mr. Tiger Man, was in the operating theater with his chest open. His broken
heart harvested in a sac of saline. He lay dead
except for the heart lung machine doing the
circulation. His new heart, donated by a kind
soul, lay in another saline filled sac on ice.
Tiger man had a unique persona. Heavy set,
long salt and pepper hair and a plethora of ink
on his back and shoulders. He was called
Tiger Man because he was bitten by a tiger
many moons past while he was lion fighter in
a circus. He was a unique heart transplant
waiting list candidate just like the unique situation today. A soft spoken burly, broad
chested gentlemen slowly dying as his heart
grew weaker when he came to my service five
months ago. The intermittent treatments
failed and he was listed on top for heart transplant for his worsening symptoms. He was on
industrial strength heart medicines to keep
pumping the last drops of blood into his body
and out of his lungs. His heart was like a large
sac with leaking fountains, all in the wrong
places. Sometimes I wondered how the God
scientist designed the system with such intricacies of fluid dynamics.
I had assured him that we will get a heart for
him so that he can marry his sweat heart post
transplant and see his 11 year old make it to
college. He had promised me that I would be
his best man. His ulterior motive was to have
his heart doctor next to him in case the new
ticker gets overwhelmed with the site of his
bride. I said it would be my honor. He
APPNA JOURNAL
I distinctly recall when Mr. Tiger took a turn
for the worse and an intraaortic balloon
pump was placed to help his heart. He was
tied to the bed so as to keep the cords of the
pump aligned. I could see his lips blue and
quivering with blanched face as if all the
blood is drained off him. He smiled with
effort and looked at me with those imploring
eyes. I was helpless. The last fibers of his
heart were stretched to limit and I hoped that
machine pump would allow him much
needed rest.
He survived for the next month and half, the
longest balloon pump support a patient could
have. He lost a lot of weight and some of the
tattoos changed shape. His fiancé, Susan
stayed with him day in and day out. I do not
know how many times she brought snacks for
my team and shared coffee with me on those
nights of constant weight and everlasting
hope. She somehow had an unwavering conviction that Tiger would make it.
His eyes lit up like a little kid on seeing a new
toy. He yelped on the news of a donor heart.
The morning was bright as we prepared Tiger
for transplant. He would not stop talking all
day and the all preparation went well till that
evening.
This is not fair doctor. You cannot do this to
me and him. She was crying incessantly repeating the same lines. I do not think that they
were addressed to me. I was holding her hand
and trying to come to a decision. The donor
heart was good but we were informed late after
his heart was removed from his chest that renal
cancer was found in the vein next to the donor
heart. The renal cancer in the vein next to the
heart implied that the heart was tainted with
22
cancer cells. I never thought of tainted heart
before. The risk of course was high chance of
cancer in Tiger under all the medicine he will
receive to prevent his body to reject his new
heart. Susan could not fathom the issue at
hand. Her fiancée lay heartless on heart lung
machine, a temporary machine that support
the heart but kills blood cells and with each
passing hour damages every fiber of his being.
The moment froze my reasoning ability. I felt
the unfairness of it all. Susan was absolutely
right. This was not fair. I remember walking to
the theater and let the surgeon know of the
decision.
He looked happy. With controlled voice he
said yes and kissed his new bride Susan. He
turned to me and gave me a big embrace. I
could feel his new heart zapping away in
excitement full of life and an incredible
rhythm. I had to tell him the Trojan cancer
that came with his new heart. He was so
happy he probably paid no attention to me.
His successful marriage saw many heart rejections but he survived all to see his son made it
to high school.
This time it was different. He was short of
breath and occasionally would cough up a
crimson stain. I knew it as soon as I saw the
polka dot sprinkled x ray of his chest. The
anti rejection medicines facilitated a mushroom of growths in his body. I shook his hand
and broke the news to him. Susan started sobbing while he consoled her. This is unfair as
Susan broke the silence. Her words had a
strange déjà vu resonance to it. I looked in his
eyes and saw that there was no fight in them,
he smiled and thanked my team and planned
to return to Lacombe Mississippi, his quaint
town by the river.
The fighter in Mr. Tiger Man had changed
with a change in his heart. May be I should
pushed more for a grand finale but he knew
better.
I looked in to mend the tear in me and looked
skywards, speachless.
We will miss you Tiger man!
SUMMER 2012
WAPPNA Report
The War On Women
Terror, Tribes & Pakistan’s Ignored Casualties
Introduction & Purpose
This report seeks to highlight the impact of
the war on terror on Pakistani women.
According to statistics compiled by the
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, there
has been a 237% increase in incidents of sexual violence in Pakistan in the past eight
years. These years have also coincided with
the War on Terror in Pakistan. This report
seeks thus to draw attention to the failure of
both the Pakistani Government and foreign
donors to the plight of Pakistani women who
in addition to the burdens of patriarchal tribal
practices and growing religious fundamentalism now also face the brunt of displacement
caused by ongoing operations in the North
and north-west.
Direct Casualties Of
The War On Terror
Pakistan’s internally displaced women
Sakina Bibi and Gul Begum had never been
to the market before in their lives. The fortyyear old Sakina and her daughter in law finally
made it out of the tent that had been supplied
to them in the camp outside Karachi when
their seven children ran out of food. They had
a hundred rupees between them and fifty
were taken by the rickshaw driver who took
them to the market. They had to rely on the
shopkeeper for correct change because neither of them could read or write and had not
dealt with currency before. The two women
are among the hundreds of thousands of displaced who fled their villages in the north and
made their way to camps in the South. In
their case, the men had sent them ahead while
choosing to stay to guard the family property,
which they thought would be taken over if
they were not there to occupy it.
These women, part of the hundreds of thousands of displaced that have been seeking
shelter in camps and relatives houses since
the onset of fighting between security forces
and Taliban militants in 2004, represent the
most ignored constituency in the War on
APPNA JOURNAL
Terror. Not only is it nearly impossible to find
statistical data on the number of women
affected by the conflict that began in
Afghanistan and has now bled over to the
tribal areas of Pakistan, but few efforts have
been made to provide systematic or targeted
aid to them. According to piecemeal reports
complied by International Aid Agencies like
UNIFEM and the UN Office for the
Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs,
nearly 60% of the approximate 2.5 million
people displaced by the conflict are women .
Many have been forced into marriages and
many also into beggary and prostitution.
The internally displaced women whose plight
is described above ironically represent the
most visible toll that the ongoing conflict has
taken on Pakistani women. Since direct causal
relations can be established between the
women in the camps fleeing villages with
burnt schools and off-limit bazaars these
women, swathed in their burqas are the image
of the female cost of the conflict. Even lesser
attention is being paid to the more complex
conglomeration of existing tribal customs,
strategic choices made by Pakistani and
NATO forced to defeat the Taliban and the
failure of the Pakistani state to take seriously
the ever deteriorating impact of a culture of
violence on the most vulnerable of their population. Pakistani authorities both democratic
and military have not only failed to pursue
legal avenues of truly empowering women but
have in some cases chosen to give public
prominence and rewards to perpetrators of
heinous crimes against women. Finally, the
United States a key player in the region has
failed in both the construction of its military
strategies as well as the structure of its aid disbursements failed to prioritize or even consider their impact on Pakistani women.
Pakistan and the United States Have the Duty
to Uphold and Defend the Rights of Women
The rights of women to be equally and justly
treated under national law and practice are
fundamental norms under international and
domestic legal systems. The Universal
23
Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) highlights the duty of all Member States of the
United Nations to uphold and protect these
rights and affirms that the international community recognizes the “dignity and worth of
the human person and in the equal rights of
men and women.” The UDHR states that no
Member State shall make any distinction of
persons on the basis of sex or nationality. The
UDHR further states that, under the premise
of equality of men and women, no person
shall be subject to torture or cruel, inhuman,
or degrading treatment or punishment and all
persons are entitled to equal protection under
the law. The Convention on the Elimination
of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
provides specific legal mandates for the principles set out in the UDHR regarding the
rights of women. Ratified by 185 states,
CEDAW is the most comprehensive and
authoritative international agreement on the
fundamental rights of women. Unlike the
UDHR, CEDAW is a treaty and is therefore a
legally binding instrument on all parties.
Pakistan has acceded to the treaty and is
therefore legally bound to its provisions. The
United States is a signatory but has not ratified the treaty. The European Court of
Human Rights and the Constitutional Court
of South Africa have relied on CEDAW for
adjudication on issues regarding women’s
rights.
Under Article 2 of CEDAW, State parties
have the overall duty of undertaking all
appropriate policy measures to eliminate discriminatory practices against women in all
forms and without any delay. Article 2 mandates key provisions for the purpose of elimination discrimination against women. First,
states must include in their national constitutions and through legislation both anti-discriminatory and affirmative laws that promote
equality between men and women and ensure
that these laws are carried out. Second, states
must adopt appropriate laws to eliminate discrimination against women. Third, states have
the duty to establish equal legal protection of
SUMMER 2012
women’s rights and establish adequate public
institutions to enforce these protections.
Fourth, states have a duty to refrain from
affirmatively discriminating against women,
such as through laws or official practice, and a
duty to ensure that public officials do not do
so. Fifth, states are bound to take all measures
to prevent discrimination of women by any
organization or enterprise, such as religious or
resistance groups. Sixth, states must abolish
all laws, customs, and practices that constitute
discrimination against women. Finally, states
must repeal all discriminatory penal provisions. Article 10 imposes on states the duty to
provide equal access and opportunities for
education, which includes fair and equal standards of quality of education. Women also
have the right to equal employment opportunities and conditions (Article 11), health care
access (Article 12), and overall economic
well-being (Article 13). In particular, states
must modify their practices for the special
hardships that women in rural areas undergo
in regards to employment and economic survival.
Although respect of sovereignty and culture
are important under international law, severe
violations of women’s rights, as outlined in
this report, are explicitly prohibited regardless
of interests of culture. CEDAW Article 5
imposes on states the duty to take appropriate
measures to change cultural patterns of
behavior that are discriminatory against
women. Also, although Article 27 of the
ICCPR protects the rights of minorities to
practice their own culture and religion,
Article 5 states that “There shall be no restriction upon or derogation from any of the fundamental rights recognized or existing in any
State party to the present Covenant pursuant
to law, conventions, regulations, or custom on
the pretext that the present Covenant does not
recognize such rights or recognizes them to a
lesser extent” (italics added). This means that,
despite the fact that women’s rights are not
specifically mentioned in the ICCPR but
minority rights are mentioned, interests of
preserving minority culture do not allow
members of a minority group to violate fundamental women’s rights, such as the right to
be free from cruel and degrading treatment.
This same provision is present in regards to
cultural rights of minorities in Article 5 of the
APPNA JOURNAL
International Covenant on Economic, Social,
and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
Conflict & The Most Unprotected
Pakistan’s Women Attacked From All Sides
1.Escalating use of violence against women
as a means to settle scores and vendettas.
Violence against women has historically been
and continues to be a debilitating problem in
Pakistan. According to reports compiled by
the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan,
in the last eighteen months alone 808 gang
rapes were reported in the country. The
majority of victims were raped by groups of
three or more men and then killed by immediate relatives. This astounding number
becomes even more chilling when one considers the fact that the numbers compiled by
the HRCP are based on newspaper clippings
of reported cases; which statistically make up
only a third of actual cases. The reason why
the number of gang rapes is significant is
because it shows a communal component to
the brutalization of women that is proximately, if not directly, related to the ongoing
civil war on the country. Failure of both military and democratic regimes to change
laws that discriminate against women and
the cost pursuing strategies of appeasement against the Taliban.
Changing regimes whether democratic or
military have neither paid attention to the
ignored plight of women caught in a conflict
ridden society but have instead promoted
what are termed as “pragmatic” .
The much touted Women’s Protection Bill
passed in 2006 gave only lip service and failed
to repeal the Zina and Hudood Ordinances.
Furthermore, in changing evidentiary requirements it put the onus on the woman saying
that she would have to produce four witnesses to the act in bringing a charge of rape
against a person. Tribal customs like vani (a
form of honor killing) continued to remain in
place even after the Bill’s passage. Indeed
according to the Human Rights Commission
of Pakistan nearly 1100 women were killed in
2008. Of these 183 were axed to death, 30
were brutally tortured. Nearly a quarter of the
women belonged to minority groups and was
particularly targeted for this reason and about
80 of them were minors.
24
c) Failure of U.S. strategy to consider the
welfare of Pakistani women in aid disbursements and strategic initiatives
In addition to the impact of the ongoing conflict, the weight of patriarchal tradition and the
lack of political will at the hands of both civilian and military governments, Pakistan’s
women have also been ignored in the strategizing of United States and NATO forces in the
region. One overt example of this has been the
prominence given to the use of tribal lashkars
or militias in the effort to fighting the Taliban.
The organization of these lashkars has followed a model similar to that used in Iraq
which empowers local tribes and even arms
them against the Taliban. What is left unaddressed is the reality that empowering local
tribal structures, many of whom have been
promoting the sequestering of females as well
as the exchange of women to settle debts and
disputes in a brutal blow to efforts to empower
them. Empowering tribal laws and customs,
which have been subjugating these women for
centuries refuses to allow them opportunities
for education, the chance to choose their life
partner, to prevent unwanted pregnancies and
leaves them caught in an endless cycle of birthing children often at the cost of their own lives.
As per estimates women in Pakistan, especially
in the tribal region have the highest illiteracy
and maternal mortality rate in the whole
region. Add to this estimated rate of sexual
assault and you have a macabre reality of hundreds of women dying in childbirth or being
raped every day.
Finally, U.S. aid disbursements to Pakistan,
increasingly such an integral part of Pakistan’s
economy have failed to make any particular
provision to assist Pakistani women caught in
the conflict and left without recourse. The
“Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act
2009” which set disbursement amounts of
750 million dollars a year for various economic and development projects in Pakistan
made no mention of women’s issues in the
Act itself. Despite the escalating rate of sexual
violence faced by Pakistani women caught in
a conflict torn region, the Act allowed for no
construction of shelters, women’s health centers and created no basis requiring the
Pakistani Government to take any development, legal or public education efforts to curb
SUMMER 2012
the onslaught against Pakistani women. In
failing to do so, it reiterated once again the
position that the welfare of Pakistani women
suffering silently under the cumulative weight
of suicide bombings, honor killings and concerted efforts to render them invisible is simply not an issue worthy of attention.
Recommendations
Based on the above, the Women’s Association
of Pakistani Physicians of North America
would recommend the following”
a. Special Aid Disbursements that are directed
to be used for women affected by the conflict and not part of development or military aid. One avenue for this would be to
fund special projects through the
International Violence Against Women Act
currently in Congress.
b. A 24/7 National Crisis Helpline for
Pakistani women: Nearly 70% of Pakistani
female victims of sexual assault commit
suicide because they have no recourse to
any sort of assistance, this is particularly
problematic in the case of female IDPs who
have been displaced and have no access to
legal, health or shelter assistance.
c. WAPPNA would be happy to collaborate
with partners in the U.S. Government to
provide assistance to women who because
of cultural mores cannot avail health
resources that are not women centered.
Directions For U.S. Policy
1. U.S. lawmakers should be strongly critical
of any military strategy that seeks to
empower the local tribal and feudal structure without checks on the power of tribal
chieftains and without an evaluation of the
consequence of such policies to tribal
women. Unless, this aspect of this strategy
is highlighted Pakistani women will continue to suffer without any recourse and
U.S. taxpayer dollars will be complicit in
their suffering.
2. Pending legislation directed toward
empowering women should provide special
disbursements to the women of Pakistan:
Currently the International Violence
Against Women Act sponsored by Senators
Kerry and Lugar is set to be reintroduced
in the House and Senate. The Bill seeks to
make women’s empowerment a facet of the
United States diplomatic agenda. As
Pakistani-American women, we proudly
support this Bill and hope that it becomes
law. However, we hope that U.S. lawmakers
will want to include Pakistan as one of the
initial pilot projects proposed by the Bill
with special funds directed toward the
building of shelters and training of security
forces in Pakistan on violence against
women issues. This inclusion in IVAWA is
of crucial importance because the women
of Pakistan are the unseen casualties of the
War on Terror and are paying the price of
living in a conflict ridden society with their
lives.
APPNA Qissa, APPNA Qazzia (Continued from page 19)
for band-aid approach is long past. Here is my
humble proposal.
Constitute a Blue Ribbon Commission comprising a few non-partisan founding members
and representatives of affiliated Alumni
groups to look into current practices and recommend meaningful reforms.
In order for any such effort to succeed, the
current officers and the Council would have
to be on board and commit to accept and
enforce Commission’s recommendations.
I wonder if there is a will to take a holiday
from corrosive politics and do something
positive and meaningful for the future of
APPNA.
Dr. Sayed Amjad Hussain is an emeritus professor of cardiothoracic surgery at the University of
Toledo, Dr. Amjad Hussain is a founding member of APPNA and served as its 4th president in
1982. He is the author of 13 Urdu and English
books on history, culture, religion and international relations, including a book on the history
of APPNA (APPNA Qissa 2004). He is a
regular columnist on the op-ed pages of daily
Toledo Blade and daily Aaj of Peshawar.
In 2009 the University of Toledo recognized him
by the establishing an endowed professorship in
cardiothoracic surgery in his name. The university also has a visiting professorship in the history of medicine that bears his name.
Dr. Amjad Hussain is a1962 graduate of
Khyber Medical College and holds emeritus professorships in Khyber Medical College and in
Khyber Medical University, Peshawar. He is also
a past president of the Islamic Center of Greater
Toledo.
American Dervish (Continued from page 14)
this year. But unlike Manto, whose work
required courage and who faced lawsuits by
puritans who were offended by his writing,
Akhtar is likely to find a ready audience in his
homeland, primed to expect the worst of
these backward Muslims, and accepting him
as the latest exotic first generation author on
the scene. With his autobiographical first
APPNA JOURNAL
novel out of the way, and having cleared his
chest of his Pakistani/Desi baggage, one
hopes that he turns his sharp insight and pen
to tell the story of other seedy parts of his
country, America: about unctuous pro-Lifers,
racist Tea-partiers, pro-Israeli hawks, greedy
Wall-streeters and the supercilious liberals
who support intervention and drone attacks.
25
There is enough hypocrisy to go around, in
this land of the free. If Akhtar is brave enough
to tell these stories, then, and only then, will
he be able to wear the mantle of “American
Manto”.
American Dervish; 357 pages; Little, Brown &
Company; $24.99
SUMMER 2012
Committee Reports
APPNA Annual Literary Award Committee
Asaf A Dar, MD, Chair, Annual Literary Award Committee
At the community level he has helped built one of the largest Islamic
Center in Toledo, Ohio and has led the Center as president for 6 years.
Built in 1982 the Center has been in the forefront of interfaith dialogue
and is known for its progressive outlook. For over 25 years he has lent
his pen and his voice to introduce moderate and progressive Islam to
his American audience through his writing and his public speaking.
On May 17, 2012 the APPNA Literary Award
Committee held its tele-conference and it
was unanimously decided to honor an illustrious APPNA member with this prestigious
award for year 2012. The APPNA community is quite familiar with this illustrious APPNA member…Dr. Syed
Amjad Hussain of Toledo, Ohio. His citation reads as follows:
As an explorer he has, since 1987, explored and photographed the
entire length of the Indus River in Pakistan. In the summer of 1996 his
Team Indus explored the river at its origin in the Kailas Mountains in
western Tibet. They were the third group in history to lay claim to that
distinction. The accomplishments of Team Indus were entered in the
U.S. Congressional Record and an hour long documentary of the expedition, “Indus River: Journey of a lifetime”, was shown nationally by
Public Broadcasting Television in America. Dr. Amjad’s photographic
work has appeared on the covers of 16 magazines and has also appeared
in various calendars.
In a profile published in The Herald Magazine in August 2003, Dr.
Amjad Hussain was introduced as the jack-of-all-trades and master of
many. While assessing his accomplishments one has difficulty in drawing a circle around this multifaceted man. One thing however is clear.
Through his myriad accomplishments this prodigious son of the soil
has made Pakistan, his country Pakistan very proud.
During his student life at Islamia College, Peshawar and later at
Khyber Medical College, he served as editor of the Urdu sections of
college literary magazines. In addition he wrote stage plays and produced University Magazine program at Radio Pakistan, Peshawar
where he was also a playwright and drama voice.
In addition to writing for a number of publications in the U.S. and
Pakistan, he has been writing for The Blade, the daily newspaper in
northwest Ohio and southern Michigan, for over twenty-six years and
for the past 18 years he has written a biweekly opinion column on the
op-ed pages of The Blade.
After graduation with distinction from Khyber Medical College, he
appeared in Urdu Honors examination (Adib Aalam) and topped the
list.
Dr. Amjad Hussain is the author of seven English and seven Urdu books
on as varied a subject as culture, religion, history and international relations. He has contributed chapters to three additional books in English.
In the United States Dr. Amjad was trained as a general surgeon and a
thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon. In 1970 he returned to Peshawar
and served on the faculty of Khyber Medical College for three years
and started cardiac surgery at Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar.
Because of reasons beyond his control, he returned to the U.S. but has
since then made annual trips to his alma mater to teach.
His 1995 Urdu book Yuk Sheher-e-Arzoo won the Abasin Literary Gold
Medal. His other Urdu books include Mitti ka Qarz, Aalam MeiN
Intikhab- Peshawar, ChitaN Wala Katora, Shehwani Urdu Shairi, Dare
Maktab and Bhakri Manzil. Because of his myriad services to the city of
his birth in the area of literature, the citizens and literati of Peshawar
City bestowed the title of Baba-e-Peshawar on him in 1996.
In the U.S. he pursued the twin-tracks of academic surgery and private
practice. He rose through the ranks at the Medical University of Ohio
and in 1987 attained the rank of a clinical professor. Since his retirement from the practice of surgery in 2004 he was elevated to the status
of Professor Emeritus. His other significant professional activities
included presidency of the Toledo Surgical Society and the
Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America (APPNA) of
whom he is a founding member. In 1982 he served on the Health
Policy Panel of the Government of Pakistan to formulate country’s
5-year health plan. In 2000 he served as 140th president of the
Academy of Medicine of Toledo and Lucas County. He is the author
of seventy scientific papers in American and international medical literature.
In addition to the above, he continues his other pastimes of playing
squash racquets, Urdu and English calligraphy, and collecting old manuscripts.
In recognition of his ongoing services to the College he was recognized
with a special Gold Medal during the 1997 convocation of the College.
At the occasion of the Silver Jubilee of the College in 1980 the students
named him the Most Admired Graduate of the College. The students
also dedicated 1992-93 issue of Cenna- college literary magazine- in his
honor. In 2005 Khyber Medical College awarded him Lifetime
Achievement Award and declare him to be the best graduate of the college. This year the college named a Clinical Skills Center in his name.
His professional accomplishments however tell but part of his interests
and accomplishments. Dr. Amjad has also been active in the fields of
community service, literature, exploration, photography, journalism
and philanthropy.
APPNA JOURNAL
In 2009 the University of Toledo created a professorship in Thoracic
and Cardiovascular Surgery in his name and established a visiting professorship in the history of medicine that carries his name.
26
SUMMER 2012
Committee Reports
Committee for Young Physicians
Jalil Khan, MD, Chair Committee of Young Physicians
It is a pleasure to serve as the chair for the
young physician committee for the current
year. We have accomplished few tasks this
year and looking forward to achieve more
goals. The committee began with no budget
but with the help of the leadership and the
members, we continue to show improvement in managing the affairs. I
would like to discuss few tasks which we are currently working on.
the candidates were unable to start the program on time and have set
up a bad precedence for the future Pakistani young physicians. The
residency programs are hesitant in giving interviews to Pakistani graduates. This is one of the challenges that membership at large and leadership have to tackle and to develop a strategy to inform the residency
program directors of the abilities of Pakistani graduates. We also
requested the state department to send a memorandum to all the
Residency programs stating that Pakistani graduates should not be discriminated based on the Visa situations. The state department has
assured and has been working on to establish a fast track security
clearance program for the Pakistani physicians.
The website which was established during the previous years was revitalized. A young physician can get lots of information regarding the
accommodation research and observer ship. They can also find a mentor ship information in addition to the above.
APPNA was able to open 4 accommodation units in Detroit area. One
exclusively is dedicated to the young women physicians who are doing
Observer ship or interviews. We appreciate KEMCAANA, WAPPNA,
Dr. Nasir Qureshi and Dr. Muhammad Suleman for sponsoring the
units. We would like for the respective chapter to be actively involve in
managing the units so the process should be continued for the years to
come.
The CYP is working on a research competition during the summer
convention and the information regarding this has been send to the
members. We believe this will bring a prestige to APPNA in
Academia.
The CYP is in collaboration with Advocacy Committee trying to
expedite the visa clearance process. We had a very informative meeting
with the representative of the state department during APPNA spring
meeting. In the wake of the meeting we are forwarding the particulars
of the candidates who have matched in the residency programs to the
state department so the background check and clearance process can
begin in advance. I still believe that there is lot of work need to be
done on this front. The challenges faced by Pakistani young physicians
are enormous. Pakistani graduates don’t get the enough interviews for
the residency and if they are matched then they have an uphill task of
getting visa or security clearance. There are many instances in which
Our APPNA house in New York is also fully functional and accommodating many young physicians.
Committee for young physicians is active in helping the young graduates of Pakistani origin. However we would like the membership at
large to come forward to help and guide these graduates. These graduates need lots of encouragement mentors hip and research opportunities to stay competitive for the residency programs.
We would welcome all the suggestions and comments that would help
us in improving our abilities.
Research, Education & Scientific Affairs Committee
Ayaz M. Samadani, MD, Chair RESA
The Research, Education and Scientific
Affairs Committee (RESA) committee has
reviewed eight activities that were presented
since March of this year. APPNA’s CME programs are geared towards diverse attendees.
The CME host committee has produced an
excellent choice of topics that meet attendees’ needs and fulfill the
identified gaps in the practice of medicine. RESA’s aim is to encourage
our members to benefit from the CME programs. The CME activities
were presented in several states in the United States and abroad. Your
feedback is important to us for future improvement in our programs
and to help meet our established goals. I request you to respond fully
to the post-presentation surveys. Your input is necessary to meet our
Mission statement.
APPNA JOURNAL
The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education
(ACCME) sets and enforces standards in physician continuing education. The RESA committee has submitted the required first CME
activity report to ACCME that was due in March, our second report
will be submitted in July this year.
Please participate in the educational activities and respond by writing
your comments in the post activity surveys in a timely fashion. .
Your Research, Education and Scientific Affairs Committee (RESA)
and the Committee for Young Physicians (CYP) are happy to
announce the annual Student/Resident/Fellow research competition
this year. I hope you enjoy the CME activities that are prepared for
your interest.
27
SUMMER 2012
Committee Reports
Adhoc Committee For APPNA Free Clinics
Nadeem Ahmed MD
One of the primary focuses of APPNA and
President Dr. Saima Zafar this year is to be in
the forefront of helping local communities
thru community projects. As physicians, providing medical care comes naturally and
APPNA clinics can provide a platform to initiate and grow programs geared towards community health education
and prevention. The goal of the ad hoc Committee for APPNA Free
Clinics is to bring this vision to fruition with a multi-prong approach
collaborating with existing community clinics, on one hand, and
establishing new clinics, on the other.
great start. Work is already under way to compile an APPNA Clinic
manual that will include information and resources to start a clinic,
such as a revised CABL template for the clinics.
The Committee has sent out surveys to the APPNA local chapter
presidents for their feed back in regards to a free clinic. We are compiling a list of existing clinics, whether they are under the umbrella of
APPNA or other governing bodies. There are APPNA free clinics
being started in Johnson City, Tennessee, New Jersey, and Milwaukee,
Wisconsin. The Committee is working through the Bureau of Primary
Health Care to provide free malpractice insurance to all the volunteer
doctors.
In this regard, the Committee will develop and share with APPNA
local chapter leaders our expertise and experience in organization and
infrastructure planning, health board certifications, liability insurance
coverage, volunteer staff recruitment, medical policy and procedure
guidelines, financial strategies, and practice management. The
Committee, with support from the central APPNA EC, will help provide resources for ongoing expenses of APPNA Free Clinics.
The Committee is also in the process of organizing the APPNA
CARES & CLINIC Day to be held this year on September 15, where
APPNA local chapters will coordinate free health screenings, and free
flu vaccinations for their local communities.
Respectfully submitted,
Nadeem Ahmed, MD, Chair
St. Louis, Missouri
With the assistance of our advisor, Dr. Nasar Qureshi, and Co-Chairs,
Drs. Mujtaba Qazi and Azam Kundi, this Committee is already off to a
Disaster Relief Committee
So far the committee has had several meetings among its members .
The committee has created an algorithm of preparedeness & response.
The committee is in the process of collecting names of volunteers
from amongst APPNA members who will be placed in a permanent
roster and henceforth will be called upon to volunteer their time and
resources as the need arises. We are also currently talking to various
nationally known organizations for developing partnerships for joint
responces. The committee will then come up with a plan to have some
funds at its disposal which can become available rather urgently as
needed.
This is a relatively new stand alone committee which was approved by
the APPNA council in fall 2010 meeting in Miami.
This committee was formed in response to a very real and urgent need
for APPNA to be better prepared and organized to deal with natural
and man made disasters, nationally and Internationally, hence fulfilling
a long felt need for APPNA to take its rightful place in the important
field of disaster response.
The purpose of this committee is two fold:
1. Have an organized and well funded entity within APPNA which
will be able to respond to disasters in a time and cost effective manner.
The committee has also decided that in order to ensure continuity and
hence quality among its ranks each member will serve terms of 1,2 3,4
& 5 years. Thus each year there will be attrition of no more than one
member only.
2. Form important liaisons with other similar national & international
professional organizations which will help foster co operation in the
realm of disaster response & bring APPNA to forefront of disaster
response
We are all looking for further help and co operation from all APPNA
members.
Thank you
Towards this end this committee was revived earlier in the year by
Saima Zafar.
APPNA JOURNAL
Umair Shah (Chair), Naheed Choudhry (Cochair), Humeraa Qamar,
Sarwat Iqbal, Shaheen Mian, Afzal Arain, Jaleel Khan, Fozia Rana
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SUMMER 2012
Committee Reports
Advocacy & Legislative Affairs Committee
Manzoor Tariq, Chairman
As Chairman of APPNA’s Advocacy and
Legislative Affairs Committee, I have been
doing my best along with the efforts of my
Committee, to uphold the responsibilities of
our Committee and uphold the cause of
APPNA. We have been having regularly
scheduled teleconferences to address and plan to reach our goals and
objectives.
As promised, we are continuing to work on the young physicians’ visa
issues with all concerned governmental parties. The Chair of the
Committee for Young Physicians, Dr. Jalil Khan, has worked very
closely with us to help convey all the information we receive to the
young physicians through his Committee’s webpage. We encourage
our membership to be proactive in regards to this issue with their local
legislation. Through active voices we can raise awareness and hopefully make significant progress.
The goals of and objectives of the Advocacy and Legislative Affairs
Committee are as follows:
We are also working on a report to publish the demographic data on
applicants who secured residency spots this year. This report will be
made available to both the YPC and our Committee as well as forwarded to governmental agencies for analysis and to help in the future.
We ask any and all young physicians who faced difficulties with the
visa process this year to get in touch with us so we can gather the necessary information and use it in the future as well as assist in any was
possible.
• T
his Committee will serve to provide APPNA and its membership
guidance and management with respect to the advocacy, legislative
and government affairs in the United States, which may have an
impact on the organization and its membership.
• T
his Committee will address issues of concern to the APPNA members, such as:
I would like to request you, the APPNA membership, to please help us
in achieving the aforementioned goals of the Advocacy and Legislative
Affairs Committee. Please be proactive and reach out to your local legislators for the advocacy of Pakistan and physicians. Your suggestions,
feedback, and comments are welcomed and appreciated.
a.Preservation of Civil rights and liberties in the United States.
b.Immigration related issues, especially with respect to new physicians coming to the United States.
c.Professional/practice issues.
d.Developing understanding and working relationship to promote
good will and understanding with other strategic organizations.
e.Other relevant issues.
It is a pleasure serving you as Chairman of the Advocacy and
Legislative Affairs Committee and I look forward to continuing to
serve you.
Best Regards,
Manzoor Tariq, MD, Chairman
Abdul Rashid Piracha, MD, Cochair
Muslim Jami, MD, Cochair
We are working to organize APPNA’s annual Day on the Hill. As the
Summer Meeting will be taking place in Washington, D.C. we were
hoping to organize a Day on the Hill during the meeting, however,
Congress will not be in session during that time. We are working to
organize a Day on the Hill for 2012 and will keep our membership
informed about it.
Members
Dr. Aamir Jama
Dr. Anwar Masood
Dr. Fawad Zafar
Dr. Naveed Chowhan
Dr. Amjad Riar
Membership Committee
Sajjad A. Savul, MD
Welcome to the Summer 2012 APPNA
Membership Committee report. This year’s
Membership Committee (MC) comprises of
Sajjad Savul as chair, Jamil Mohsin as cochair
and the following members: Arif Ahmad,
Rabia Awan, Bushra Cheema, Shaikh Hai,
Tariq Jamil, Munir Javed, Sohail Rana, Arshad Saeed, and Saima Shahid.
The Committee has several members who bring in experience from
serving on MC in recent years. The MC meets via teleconference, on a
monthly basis. Minutes are kept and approved for each meeting.
APPNA (including about 1500 annual and 1200 lifetime members).
In March, MC initiated a Member-Get-A-Member campaign offering
incentives to members who helped bring in new members. As of June
1st, our total membership was over 3200. This is the “first time in
APPNA’s 35-year history that the membership has surpassed 3200
members!”
Every year, significant time and effort is exercised by APPNA Central
staff and MC to verify a number of applicants on whether or not they
meet voting eligibility criteria. In order to help facilitate the verification process, in January, a system-wide email was sent to help understand different membership categories and relevant timelines. The
March 31st deadline to apply for membership with voting privileges
was strictly followed.
At the beginning of the year, we aimed to double APPNA’s active
membership in 2012. At the end of last year, of over 15000 Pakistani
descent physicians in North America, only 2900 were members of
APPNA JOURNAL
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SUMMER 2012
Committee Reports
In mid-March, in an effort to move towards eAPPNA (electronic
APPNA), the Office Management Committee (OMC) transferred the
existing membership data from iMIS system to the new InstantReg
portal. Several shortcomings were encountered in the initial phase.
Both MC and OMC worked in coordination to overcome these hurdles. OMC Chair, Dr. Arif Agha, played a pivotal role in improving the
APPNA portal. This data is a tremendous resource for APPNA, and
will remain so in years to come.
were class reunions, charitable opportunities, exposing children to
Pakistani ambience and academic interactions. When asked about
items relevant to increasing and retaining members, “Accountability/
transparency” was considered the most important (97%), whereas
“Decreasing membership fee” as the least important (57%).
Post-Summer Meeting Agenda: By May 15, 2012, MC had held over
six teleconference meetings. In addition, MC chair and co-chair met
on several occasions. The extent of contact with APPNA office has
been enormous. As much as 90% of time was spent on issues related
to member verification for voting eligibility. Only a minority of time
was dedicated to increasing membership (although with great success!) and benefiting membership needs. MC is working on proposals
for better time utilization of its functions. This includes proposing
changes to voting eligibility, modifying membership categories and
further enhancing the member benefit package. MC welcomes ideas
and suggestions from APPNA members.
In 2012, APPNA paid over $60,000 in service charges for all payments
made to the association via credit cards. In January’s MC meeting,
responding to a proposal by President Dr. Saima Zafar, a motion was
unanimously approved, adding a 3% service charge to the credit card
payments for APPNA membership dues. APPNA had already adopted
this service charge for other payments made to the organization
(except donations). Non-credit card payments are exempt from this
service charge.
Membership Survey: To study the needs of member physicians, MC
co-chair Dr. Jamil Mohsin conducted a membership survey. Over 200
APPNA physicians responded of which 90% were current members.
The majority of respondents considered social interaction as the primary reason for joining APPNA whereas charitable work was the second best reason. More than half of the respondents found APPNA
related social networking as most rewarding. Other rewarding items
Thank you for your time in reading this report. The Membership
Committee team feels honored to be part of this very important
APPNA committee.
Respectfully submitted,
Sajjad A. Savul, MD
Chair, Membership Committee 2012
Office Management & Oversight Committee
Arif Agha, MD (Chair),
Javed Imam, MD (Cochair), Aftab Khan, MD, Mansoor Alam, MD, Aisha Zafar, MD
The overseas website support was flawed resulting in non-reliability of
database. Reconciling of website transactions with in-house books
was at disparity.
Co-mingling of various revenue sources e.g., donations and other
funds that resulted in misappropriation.
Accountant was non-certified and overpriced.
Office Building and APPNA Clinic were noted to be non-compliant
with building codes .
Employee contracts and standard operating procedures had not
been updated for years. Office culture needed uplift with dress code
and demeanor.
Avoidable expenses in overnight shipping and wiring funds. Manual
bank deposits were deemed old fashioned in present day technology.
Travelling and accommodation expenses for ancillary consultants
and staff were deemed redundant.
OMC 2012 Vision
The OMC set two primary goals for 2012.
• Making APPNA office Paperless
• Restructure and redesign the office to
corporate standards.
Objective
• I ncrease efficiency and productivity by eliminating redundancies
• Reduce operating costs and overheads by adopting modern
technology
• Introduce membership friendly central office culture
• Renovate the office, compliant with international building code
(IBC)
• Upgrade APPNA Clinic to a model facility with American
Disability Act (ADA) compliance
Redundancies and Inefficiencies
Launching E-APPNA
OMC 2012 identified following areas of redundancies and
inefficiencies.
Membership and financial data was entered in triplicate manner which
resulted in inaccuracies in financial reporting and consumed excessive
man hours of labor with large overheads.
APPNA JOURNAL
E-APPNA was launched as the major project to overcome many of the
above inefficiencies. When fully implemented, it will transform
APPNA into a virtual, paperless office. Core features of E-APPNA
include a database engine with Membership, CME, Donations and
Event Management modules.
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SUMMER 2012
Committee Reports
Membership Module
There have been many anticipated glitches with login and registration
which caused some undesirable difficulties. OMC wishes to thank the
membership for their cooperation and patience.
Online membership application
Facility to upload licenses and other supporting documents for
membership review
Auto-renewal notices and license expiration reminders
Self-service membership profile management
Remote membership verification by the Membership Committee
Database Searches with various outputs for meaningful use
Staff and Payroll
At present, office has 4 Full Time (FT) equivalent employees (one
Administrator, one FT Admin Assistant, two part time assistants, one
part-time CME coordinator and a part time book-keeper). During the
transition to E-APPNA, there will be a temporary increase in the staff
and payroll. When E-APPNA will be fully functional, APPNA office
should be able to spare 1- 1 _ position equivalent. This could translate
to $35,000 to $50,000 in annual savings (cumulatively nearly one half
million over the next 10 years).
Continuing Medical Education (CME)
Attendee Registration for CME programs
Speaker Registration with facility to upload abstracts/learning
objectives as well as disclosures
Online Evaluation of the speakers and programs
Claiming CME credits, Credit Registry and CME certificates
ACCME compliance for maintenance of accreditation and
re-accreditation
Archiving of Enduring CME Material
Banking and Revenue Streamlining
Independent merchant account connected to new SWDRC Bank
Account
Instantaneous Online Tax Exempt Statement/receipts
Remote access to Donations module by SWDRC
For better accounting, reconciliation and transparency, 7 bank
accounts were opened at JP Morgan Chase as follows: General
Operations, Donations, CME, Membership Dues, and Meetings (3
accounts; Summer/Winter meetings, Spring/Fall meeting and
International Meetings). All revenues for these activities are collected
through E-APPNA. Each of these revenue sources has a separate
merchant account as well as Tele-checking electronic fund transfer
account.
All online activity will be exported to QuickBooks electronically from
the third fiscal quarter.
Access to Donations accounts has been provided to SWDRC for
monitoring collections and disbursements.
Event Management
Accounting and Book Keeping
Online Meeting Registration
Facility to Self-Edit Meeting Registration
Integration of Event Management with the Membership Dashboard
Online and Onsite Badge And Ticket Printing
Exhibitor Registration
Licensed (verified) CPA and firm has been retained at 80% reduced
cost than the previous year. A new external CPA audit firm has been
retained at 40% lower rate than the last year.
Financial software specific for non-profit organizations has been
purchased and installed.
Donations
Budget, Targets and Savings:
Other Features of E-APPNA:
OMC aims to maintain the budget of 2011. There is a potential of
slight increase to cross-train the new staff during the transition from
the old to the new system. This will be more than offset by multitude
of savings already enforced.
OMC has been vigilant in reducing expenses by restraining nonjudicious and indiscriminate use of overnight shipping (costing $30K
in 2011).
Better negotiations have saved more than $35000 in contracting
certified public accountants and auditors.
Office has also saved $16000 proposal of fixing the old website by
managing the website in house.
New revenues sources have been created by selling online
advertisement at APPNA website.
Credit card convenience fee will save the association more than
$65,000 in 2012.
Termination of redundant service contracts have saved in thousands.
Collectively these numbers easily add up to far above $100,000.
An online Electronic Fax (E-fax) system has been implemented
Electronic Check Scanning and deposits from the office has been
implemented eliminating manual deposit slips.
Electronic Fund Transfer (Tele-checking) option for dues payment,
meeting registration and donations is under way (at the time of
writing). It will reduce credit card transaction fees to the members and
the association.
OMC is reviewing electronic signature facility through E-Signature
for validity and cost-effectiveness.
Challenges of Change
Many challenges and natural resistance to the change were
encountered. Volunteers were engaged to enter and update the
membership data.
Data is incomplete. Many life time members (119) have never
provided their emails. 630 members share 315 emails addresses with
their spouses. Members who have shared emails in this manner are
requested to provide unique emails at [email protected]
APPNA JOURNAL
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SUMMER 2012
Committee Reports
APPNA Office Renovation
Note of Thanks
OMC envisions that APPNA office should not only be technologically
advanced but also physically appealing and inviting. An architect has
been retained for this purpose. APPNA office will be converted to a
state of the art facility to enhance image of APPNA. The council in its
spring meeting 2012 has already approved the above remodeling.
OMC wishes to thank the President and the Executive Committee for
entrusting us with responsibility of the central office. OMC is grateful
to the membership for their patience and cooperation through the
implementation of E-APPNA.
I am personally indebted to the OMC members Drs. Javed Imam,
Aftab Khan, Mansoor Alam and Dr. Aisha Zafar for their valuable
contributions. I would also like to thank office staff Jennifer Wozniak,
Denise Burt, Tina Cederborg, Joanne Walthius, Sidra Tul Muntaha,
Gina Latarewicz and Maria Khan. And last but not least, special thanks
are due to Mr. Hasan Tariq of IQVIS Technologies for making
E-APPNA happen.
APPNA Clinic
APPNA office also houses APPNA Clinic (Registered as APPNA
Community Health Center with the state of IL). At present, the
facility is ADA noncompliant. The above remodeling will also help
improve compliance.
Constitution & Bylaws Committee
6. The section 20 amendments changes the calendar for the election
and nomination process to move towards the fall APPNA meeting
The CABL committees of past years have done a lot of work in
keeping the constitution and bylaws of the organization updated.
There are several changes, which had been recommended and duly
approved by two executive council meeting. Last year bylaws could
not be passed secondary to the lack of quorum in the general body
meeting and then attempt was made to get approval by mail, which
was again unsuccessful.
7. The section 26 amendments clarify the process for constitution
amendments and Timeline. It also lays down additional framework for
mail ballot in case of failure to get 50% signatures of the membership
for any such amendments.
8. Appendix A refers to procedures for recall of an officer
The CABL committee met this year on the instruction of the president to make another attempt at approval of the amendments by mail
ballots. The committee thoroughly discussed the amendments and
agreed to make another attempt at approval of the bylaws by the mail
ballot.
9. Appendix B relates the APPNA conflict of interest policy
The committee has decided that the deadline for the submission of
ballot for approval is June 30, 2012. The committee has also decided
that NO RESPONSE FROM THE MEMBER WILL BE
CONSIDERED AS A “YES” RESPONSE.
The brief summary of the amendments is as follows:
The members will be receiving ballots soon in the mail. They will still
have the opportunity to vote individually on the amendments or collectively. It is imperative for the membership to respond to this mailing to fulfill their fiduciary duty as a member. These changes are the
need of the time for the Association to grow and move forward. The
committee strongly feels that these amendments will be approved this
time.
1. Auxiliary Organization. Section 5 relates to all auxiliary organizations to organize and function under the APPNA constitution
2. Section 9 amendments clarifies the procedure and timeline for the
constitution amendments as they are processed by the council
3. Section 12 amendments clarify the component organization structure, tax Id and financial statements. The component organization will
follow the APPNA Constitution and raise funds using APPNA ID.
Submit financial statements yearly.
For the benefit of membership the amendments are printed in this
journal along with a ballot for their convenience.
4. The section 13 amendment allows the executive council and not
the president elect to verify credentials after receiving them from
membership chair.
The Constitution And Bylaws Committee
Mohammad Suleman, MD, Chair
Farrukh Malik, MD, Vice Chair
Mufiz Chauhan, MD
Omar Nasib, MD
Khalid Matin, MD
Sabir Ali, MD
5. The section 19 amendments pertain to standing APPNA committees and suggestion for staggered terms.
APPNA JOURNAL
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SUMMER 2012
Committee Reports
Social Welfare & Disaster Relief Committee
Mubasher Rana, MD Chair , SWDRC
APPNA Dispensary
Assalaam-Alaikum. APPNA has a rich and
proud tradition of Social Welfare and
Disaster Relief projects in Pakistan and
around the World. Over the years, APPNA’s
charitable activities have eclipsed all other
programs and this altruistic nature has
become one of the foremost qualities, the organization is recognized
for. APPNA has raised millions of dollars for different projects. Even
more precious is hundreds of hours of free time and medical care provided by APPNA members who have made a tremendous difference
in countless lives. We proudly continue this tradition. Following is the
highlight of some of SWDRC’s ongoing projects:
APPNA operates a Dispensary near Munirabad in
Muzaffargarh District. There is one full time
Dispenser and a doctor visits 2 half days/week. We
are providing health screening including Diabetes
screening, basic medical care and free medicines. The
total patients seen are 90/day. 56,000 patients have
been seen in the dispensary so far. This is the primary
source of free health care for majority of the population in that area. The cost to run the dispensary is $
600/month
Cleft Lip Project
Restoring Sight (APPNA Eye Camps)
It takes as little as 45 minutes to save a child from a
lifetime of pain, shame and isolation. You can give
them a chance to go to school, make friends and
have a bright future. You can help provide free surgery for a child suffering from cleft lip or cleft palate. APPNA is sponsoring Plastic Surgeons from
North America to go and perform these surgeries in
Pakistan. Our first sponsorship is for Dr. Haroon
Qazi who will be performing 30-40 Cleft lip surgeries in Abbottabad.
It costs $73 to repair pediatric cataract, $28 for adult
cataract and $40 for squint surgery. In May, APPNA
conducted its second eye camp in Mansehra, KPK
province of Pakistan in collaboration with LRBT.
The Average Eye Camp Cost is $1730. Thanks to
your generous donations, we have secured funding to conduct one Eye
camp per month for the rest of the year in all provinces of Pakistan.
Building Homes (Sujawal Project)
SWDRC plans to build 100 homes in Village Rahib
Amro in Sujawal Sind. This area was badly damaged
and most homes completely destroyed after Floods of
2010 and 2011. This project is under way. The average cost of each home is just over $ 1,000. SWDRC
has identified a ground partner who will build the houses. SHINE
Humanity will provide monitoring and accounting for the project.
SWDRC Seminar with Dr. Mohammad Jawad
Acid & Fire Burn Tragedies in Pakistan, How APPNA Can Help?
The Seminar is going to be on Saturday, July 7th
at the APPNA Summer meeting in Washington
DC. It begins with showing of the Oscar winning documentary, “Saving Face”. It will be followed by a Q & A session and expert Panel discussion including Dr.
Mohammad Jawad. We will focus on how APPNA can help with these
tragic events affecting many oppressed people especially woman.
Clean Water Well Project
An estimated 250,000 children in Pakistan under
the age of 5 years die every year due to water borne
diseases. Most people, in the country, have only one
water source. It may be a nearby river, pond, or rainwater from a catch basin or creek. Typically the
water source is used by both humans and animals. APPNA SWDRC is
partnering with Hassan Foundation to provide clean water. We plan to
fund Wells in all the provinces of Pakistan. We have funded our first
Clean Water well in Winder, Baluchistan. The next Well is being constructed in KPK.
SWDRC E-Newsletter & Website
SWDRC plans to publish an E-Newsletter every month. The first
Newsletter was published in May. Its primary objective is to let APPNA
members and America know of all the charitable work APPNA and its
members are doing. Please do read the Newsletter. It will make you
proud. We are also updating SWDRC website. You can visit us at www.
appna-swdrc.org to learn more about our projects.
In the end, I would request that you please generously donate to these
projects so we can continue to make a difference in the lives of the
unfortunate and forgotten people of the world. You can donate on the
APPNA website or send a check with SWDRC in the memo to:
APPNA, Attn.: Jennifer Wozniak, 6414 South Cass Avenue,
Westmont, IL 60559
APPNA School
APPNA is building a school near Munirabad in
Muzaffargarh District near Multan. The number of
Grade School Children in the area is 250-300. The
nearest school is 6-7 km and many children don’t
attend school. The school is from 1 through 8th
grade. The construction is under way and will be completed in June,
2012. We are evaluating partnership with CARE Foundation to run
the school. A Water purification plant will be installed on the school
premises. It will be the primary source of clean water for the people
living in the area.
APPNA JOURNAL
Committee Members: Dr. Ayesha Najib (Cochair), Dr. Abdul
Majeed (Cochair), Dr. Haroon Durrani, Dr. M. Shahid Yousuf, Dr.
Nadeem Zafar, Dr. Nadeem Ahmad, Dr. Shahram Malik, Dr. Shahab
Arfeen, Dr. Nosheen Mazhar, Dr. Naeem Khan, Dr. Mansoor Alam,
Dr. Munir Javed, Dr. Naveed Aziz, Dr. Muneer Abidi
Dr. Aisha Zafar (Advisor)
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SUMMER 2012
Alumni Reports
Aga Khan University Alumni Association North America (AKUAANA)
Sadaf Khan, MD – President AKUAANA 2012
Since taking over the reins from the immediate
past president, Dr. Faiz Bhora, we decided to
focus on endeavors that encourage and facilitate communication and active participation
by alumni in the Association’s activities. To
that end, we have re-vamped the previously
launched website such that networking, discussions and comments on a
wide range of subjects can be facilitated in an accessible and non-intrusive manner.
Registrar; Mrs. Carol Ariano,
Vice President, Human
Resources, Mr. Zahir
Janmohamed, Director General,
Resource Development.
I’d like to take this opportunity
Picture of AKUMC Courtyard
to reiterate that AKUANA is a
component society of APPNA.
APPNA effectively represents all physicians of Pakistani descent in the
United States and for us to have a voice in our adopted country, it is
important to join and participate in the initiatives APPNA undertakes.
We encourage all AKU Alumni to also become members of APPNA.
Please visit the Association’s website at www.akualumni.net. We hope
you will like what you see; become a member; send us constructive
feedback and comments to help improve on the website; allowing us to
create a meaningful, effective and cohesive AKU alumni body in North
America.
Where we go from here as an Association will be dictated by active
participation and engagement of the AKU alumni body in North
America.
Our next focus is to increase membership to allow this organization to
become self-sustaining. A healthy membership base is essential to keep
us in the “black” as there are costs incurred to keep it legal and current.
Engage, Participate, Own
Sadaf Khan, President
I look forward to meeting many alumni at the 2012 AKUANA Annual
Reunion in Washington, DC. I also look forward to meeting with
APPNA members and officials. It is especially heart-warming that we
have two classes celebrating an important milestone in Washington. The
Class of 2002 and Class of 1992 are holding their class reunions to celebrate their 10 and 20 year anniversaries since graduation. Guests from
the Aga Khan University joining us to celebrate this year include Dr.
Farhat Abbas, Dean, Medical College; Mr. Louis Ariano, University
AKU-ANA is a not-for-profit organization based in the U.S. which represents AKU Medical College Alumni in North America.
Executive Committee: Sadaf Khan, MD (President*), Amna Iftikhar,
MD (Secretary*), Syed J. Sher, MD (Treasurer*), Shain Amershi
(Executive Coordinator, Ex-officio).
*Elected office bearers term ends on December 31, 2013
Allama Iqbal Medical College Alumni of North America (AIMCANA)
Abid Hussain, MD – President AIMCANA 2012
Thanks to the vibrant and zealous participation of membership, AIMCAANA had
another very busy and eventful year and
momentum of progress continued throughout the year. AIMCAANA was able to make
further progress on several fronts not only at
our alma mater but also in our adopted homeland including improving
patient care, uplifting of education standards and opportunities for
students, and stimulating critical thinking through social forums.
AIMCAANA annual meeting in St Louis was once again very well
attended and AIMCAANA membership continues to grow like the
previous year. Our members have also been active in providing leadership in their communities and working on interfaith harmony for
example Dr. Babar Cheema has taken a leading role in this regard in
his home town, Louisville KY and Dr. Naeem Tahirkheli through his
foundation in Pakistan continues to improve education by supporting
the schools and living conditions by rebuilding houses for flood victims. Many of our members contributed generously to this cause.
APPNA JOURNAL
Following is a brief list and description of projects continued in year
2011-2012
Chemotherapy infusion suite at Jinnah Hospital ( JH) was established and maintained to give outpatient chemotherapy treatments to
all patients. Due to its effective utilization there is already a need for its
expansion to provide separate treatment area for men and women and
active efforts are underway to accomplish that this year.
Library/ Reading room in JH was upgraded and furnished for post
graduate students and doctors, to allow them to study in the hospital.
Especially equipped Car for Special student, Jawad Bhatti, funds
was raised to provide a car for a special student at AIMC in recognition of his efforts and encouragement.
Jinnah Allama Iqbal Institute of Diabetes and Endocrinology
(JAIDE): Institute continues to provide education and treatment to
150 patients with diabetes every day. The plan for expansion of JAIDE
has been under consideration to increase the services and education
opportunities and is expected to complete by the end of this year.
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SUMMER 2012
Alumni Reports
Iqbalian house in Philadelphia continue to provide residence to
applicants looking for residencies, AIMCAANA continued its support
to cover all the rent.
Jinnah Hospital Public School: This school was set up to provide
high quality education to children of lower scale employees working in
AIMC and JH Lahore. As a token of appreciation for the services of
AIMC employees, AIMCAANA provided books and furniture for
children of AIMC employees, studying at Jinnah hospital public
school.
Qarze Hasna was also provided to 10 bright graduates of AIMC to
help in their residency search.
Educational Seminars and Workshops, Many AIMCAANA, members utilized Visiting faculty program and delivered lecture at AIMC
throughout the year. Notably Dr. Saad Usmani and Dr. Tahir Latif
arranged seminar on hematological Malignancies at AIMC in January
2012 and Dr. Sajid Chaudhary helped with treating complicated
Dengue patients in Lahore and met with Chief minister in regard to
promote efforts for Dengue control and management in November of
2011. Dr. Shahram Malik organized small focus group discussion with
AIMC graduates, regarding career pursuing in U.S.A.
The efforts on the part of AIMCAANA executive council are ever
going and some of the projects expected to be started or completed in
near future include expansion of chemotherapy suite, JAIDE, sending
a container load of medical equipment acquired in the U.S. to JH
Lahore and to partner in an effort to provide assistance in running of
Jinnah Public School. In the end we like to thank APPNA membership
in general and AIMCCANA members in particular for their generous
support. We look forward to working with you all, seeking your advice
and trying to make this forum more useful and productive. Please
don’t hesitate to write us and tell us what we can do to improve our
working further.
Document Verification services: We now have a efficient and swift
mechanism to complete expedited documentation verification for
AIMC graduate facing a time constrain, please visit our website www.
aimcaana.org for details.
Truly yours,
Abid Hussain, MD
Dow Graduate Association of North America (DOGANA)
DOGANA – A Brilliant Future
Talha Siddiqui, MD – President DOGANA 2012
Dear Colleagues,
Physicians for Caring”.
and Congress Leaders who were informed about the J-1 issue and its
complexities.
I assumed the responsibility of DOGANA
President this year. Our slogan this year is
“Knowledge for Sharing and Young
During this retreat a leadership workshop was arranged for the Central
Council and Committee members. Dr. Azim Qureshi our GS spear
headed the workshop. This was a very informative and successful
event for the new and younger leadership of DOGANA.
Being cognizant about our vision and goal, we galvanized two dormant committees. On one hand, Visiting Faculty Program was bolstered under the leadership of its Chair, Adil Jamal Akhtar, MD and on
the other hand, Young Physicians Committee was strengthened under
its Chair Dr. Farrukh Hashmi.
DOGANA also has the unique contribution of hosting the first ever
APPNA Presidential Debate. This debate was televised throughout
North America for the physicians to hear directly from their future
leadership. The moderation was brilliantly conducted by Aamir Jamal,
Jamil Farooqui and Muslim Jami.
These two committees have earnestly toiled to boost our vision. We
are embarking on a tangible and permanent program for transfer of
knowledge to students, residents and faculty at DUHS. Professor
Masood Hameed Khan, VC DUHS will be attending our Summer
Meeting in Washington DC to finalize and inaugurate this program.
We have already taken out our first publication. Dr, Hasan Ali Habib,
Azim Qureshi and Tariq Javaid Alam are now working on the Summer
publication.
We have already applied for our 501-3c status.
Under the leader ship of Dr. Farrukh Hashmi, DOGANA’s YPC has
finally established connections with the State Department to expedite
the security clearance for Pakistani Physicians. Our first young
Physician will arrive on U.S. soil as we attend the summer meeting.
This is just the beginning. DOGANA YPC has vouched to assist all
Pakistani Physicians who are having problems in Pakistan to travel to
U.S.A. The effort of Zaffar Iqbal, Muslim Jami and Pervaiz Rahman
regarding this issue is commendable.
DOGANA has a bright future because our young physicians are
becoming active in the organization. They are the salvation for our
organization. We will follow our slogan” leaders are those who produce more leaders and not more followers”.
DOGANA has a very important role to play in APPNA. Not only have
we produced leaders but have intoduced prime concepts like Social
Form and APPNA debate.
DOGANA for the first time had its retreat in Orlando, Florida. Dr.
Asif Mohiuddin and his team arranged a very successful retreat for the
dowites. The hall mark of the retreat was the presence of U.S. Senators
APPNA JOURNAL
Long Live DOGANA and Dowites!
Talha Siddiqui, MD
President DOGANA 2012
35
SUMMER 2012
Alumni Reports
Fatima Jinnah Medical College Alumni of North America (FJMCNA)
Farhat Osman, MD – President, FJMCANA 2012
I am pleased to report that the FJMC
ALUMNI ASSOCIATION has been following the aims and objectives as set forth by the
Association.
• O
btaining (501) c3 status for FJMC Alumni association is currently
in progress.
• A
n e-Library was established at FJMC in 2009 by FJMC Alumni
with the help of SWRDC to fulfill our goal of extending education
and knowledge to 600 undergraduate students, 25 post graduates
and 50 faculty members. This year, FJMC Alumni will be helping
the e-library again with funds to secure a Wi-Fi Internet supply with
dedicated lines, as currently library is non-functional due to a lack
of Internet access.
As in previous years, an effort has been made
this year to strengthen FJMC Alumni by recruiting new members and
increasing our endowment funds, which in turn, enable us to fulfill our
commitment to provide scholarship funds for needy students at
Fatima Jinnah Medical College, support Hepatitis C clinics, as well as
various other endeavors.
• R
ecently FJMC alumni adopted an accommodation for girls in
Detroit, Michigan as part of a Young Physician project and are currently busy furnishing this apartment.
Our activities this year:
• T
hroughout the year, teleconferences took place with the objective
of achieving goals, objectives and planning for the future.
• T
his year, the Supreme Court has given a decision in favor of
upgrading Fatima Jinnah Medical College to a University status. We
are excited and honored to be alumni of this great institution and
are looking forward to strengthen our bond further with our Alma
Mater.
• L
etters were sent out by postal service and e-mailed through our
Yahoo group for donations and requesting membership.
• O
ur Alumni were represented by Dr. Farhat Osman at APPNA
Spring Meeting 2012.
• O
n a sad note, our beloved Dr.Rose Madan passed away this year.
For FJMC graduates her role is indescribable, other alumni members may have come across her as a tough examiner, as she was a
world-renowned physiologist.
• R
ecently, an on-line survey was conducted to get the opinion
regarding barriers surrounding membership to join the Alumni
Association, attend Alumni meetings, and the best use of donated
money. Surprisingly, having a physician spouse was the biggest reason not to attend Alumni meetings.
“Surely we belong to God and to Him shall we return.”
• O
r website, which is currently in under progress, will soon have the
added feature of PAY- PAL.
King Edward Medical College Alumni Association of North America
Aisha Zafar, MD – President KEMCAANA 2012
Kemcaana recently held it’s seventh annual
retreat at the Dallas Westin Galleria from April
20-22. This was a very well coordinated event
which started with dinner and mushaira
arranged by Dr. Amanullah Khan on Friday.
The next morning, there was an excellent
CME program arranged by Dr. Ahmed Raza and then followed by a
brainstorming session in the afternoon moderated by Dr. Riaz
Chaudhry.
Kemcaana village of Farooqabad is now complete and we built a 100
homes, vocational rehab center, a school and provided clean water for
this village. Several Kemcolians sponsored free eye camps through
LRBT in different cities in Pakistan including in our village of
Farooqabad.
Banquet that night was held along with the North Texas/ Dallas chapter
followed by entertainment by Jawad Ahmed. Special thanks to the chair
of the retreat committee, Dr. Khalid Mahmood and his team for a job
well done.
The scholarship program remains the star of Kemcaana and we have 47
scholarships through the Endowment fund and 27 through Thanks
Scholarship. I want to acknowledge the efforts of Drs Masood Akbar
and Bashir Chaudhry for this noble cause. I am also grateful to Mr Jamal
Hamdani for sponsoring Hamdani postgraduate scholarship and our
first recipient just got matched and will be starting his residency in July
this year. Mr Hamdani has also provided free wifi to the entire KEMU
campus and the hostels.
The computer lab, for which the Kemcaana members had graciously
donated in the last summer meeting, is undergoing renovation and
thirty new computers and two servers will be added in June. Our
Our Kemcaana House in Philadelphia continues to accommodate graduates of all medical colleges. This is sponsored by Kemcaana members
so that its subsidized and students have to pay only a 100 dollars a
APPNA JOURNAL
36
SUMMER 2012
Alumni Reports
month. This place is meant for students and doctors who are here for
their exams or for the residency interviews. Kemcaana recently sponsored another such residence in Detroit while a second one in Detroit
was sponsored by another Kemcolian, Dr. Mohammad Suleman.
We need your help in finding electives and rotations for our students
and young doctors. Dr. Waseem Khaliq, who is at the faculty at John
Hopkins, and Dr. Ali Hashmi who recently went back from U.S.A and is
at KEMU in Pakistan, have been working together in helping guide
these students and finding them a rotation. Please send us your information if you can help these students and doctors.
Aisha Zafar, President Kemcaana 2012
Maqbool Arshad, President-Elect
Tariq Jamil, Past president
Ayesha Najib, Secretary
Ahmed Mehdi Malik, Treasurer.
Please do join us on Friday, July 6th at the Kemcaana Alumni dinner at
the Gaylord resort in Washington DC. Our winter meeting this year is
being held at KEMU in collaboration with Appna from December 21-23.
We look forward to see you,
Khyber Medical College Alumni Association Of North America
Arshad Rehan, MD – President 2012
The Khyber Medical College Alumni
Association of North America (KMCAANA)
remained busy with its various projects
through the year.
KMCAANA successfully completed two if its projects for the flood
victims of Pukhtoonkhwa this last year. The science laboratory for the
students of Federal Government High School, Nowshera was rehabilitated and fully equipped with generous help from KMCAANA and
APPNA members. We would like to extend our special thanks to the
Virginia chapter of APPNA who donated a major part of the funds.
Similarly, KMCAANA built and equipped a computer laboratory for
the students of Government Higher Secondary School Number 1,
Nowshera Cantt. The student volunteers of the Social Welfare Society
of KMC made both these projects possible with help on the ground.
The alumni continues to remain engaged
with the administration, teachers and students of the Khyber Medical
College (KMC) to explore ways and means to help it with various
projects. As part of these endeavors, the alumni decided to donate a
clinical skills lab to the college. The Governor Pukhtoonkhwa,
Barrister Masood Kausar, inaugurated the same this last December. As
part of acknowledgement of the services of KMCAANA for KMC, the
academic council of the college was gracious in naming the lab after
the founding president of KMCAANA, S. Amjad Hussain.
KMCAANA wishes to acknowledge the services of its ex-president,
Dr. Javed Bangash who was instrumental in raising funds for the
project.
KMCAANA is in the process of amending its constitution. We hope to
present the amendments to the membership during this summer meeting. After the amendments are approved, KMCAANA would apply for a
tax-exempt charity status so that our projects can be further streamlined
and made more efficient. We thank all our friends for their support.
Qaid-e-Azam Medical College
Alumni Association of North America (QMCAANA)
Massoud E. Mian, MD – President QMCAAMA 2012
For the first time in the history of APPNA,
the 2011 winter meeting was held at Quaide-Azam Medical College in Bahawalpur,
Pakistan, in close collaboration with QAMC
Alumni, QAMCAANA and APPNA. It was a very successful gathering
where a large number of APPNA members along with their families
enjoyed the hospitality of QMCAANA and the host committee. From
APPNA JOURNAL
America to Australia, Sweden to South Africa, many of those in attendance had traveled far across the world to exchange and share their
experiences and medical expertise with the local physicians at the
CME seminars during the Conference. In addition, APPNA delegates
were provided with exclusive tours of rarely viewed ancient palaces
and access to rare historical artifacts of state rulers, who were the emigrated successors of the Abbassid Dynasty of Baghdad. Delegates also
37
SUMMER 2012
Alumni Reports
enjoyed spectacular views and up-close access to local wildlife including the endangered black buck deer during the trip to Lal Sohanra
National Park.
look forward to serving the APPNA community and sharing their
thoughts and ideas to do better.
I am also excited to share the current developments at the Quaid-eAzam Medical College (QAMC). Due in large part to the dedication,
contribution and generosity of APPNA members, construction is
underway for critical medical facilities at QAMC including an
Intensive Care Unit and kidney disease unit. Furthermore, a Women’s
Center and Pediatric Ward are also being built to better serve the local
and regional population of Bhawalpur.
The winter meeting “11 was predominantly sponsored by the local
host committee of QAMC and resulted in the alleviation of the financial burden on APPNA budget. Such a successful Winter Conference
would not have been possible without the diligence and valuable contributions of Winter Committee chairman, Dr. Dawood Nasir and his
fellow members of the Host Committee for the Winter Conference.
In addition, the new Executive Committee of QAMCAANA was
elected as follows:
President – Dr. Massoud Elahi Mian
President Elect – Dr. Khalid Iqbal
Secretary – Dr. Zahid Imran
Treasurer – Dr. Shahid Munif
These recent developments indicate the vibrant organization that we
are – and the even more vibrant one we hope to become. I hope you
will join me at the APPNA’s
35th Annual Summer
Convention being held from
July 4 to July 8, 2012 in
Washington, D.C. to celebrate
and strengthen our common
goals in APPNA.
One of the best parts of being an APPNA member is getting to know
our diverse alumni members. Whether I am greeting them at a reception or chatting with them through correspondence, I never fail to be
impressed by their energy, intelligence, and commitment to APPNA. I
Rawalpindi Medical College Alumni Association of North America
M. Qasim Hasan, MD, MPH – President RMCAANA 2012
Dear fellow APPNA members,
two villages, in addition to establishing a primary school to be run by an
NGO experienced in the educational field in Pakistan. Another primary
school is being built by RMCAANA with local funding.
It is an honor and pleasure to be able to update
you with reference to Rawalpindi Medical
College Alumni Association of North America
(RMCAANA). As you are aware, RMCAANA
is a younger alumni. However, exhibiting typical Pakistani ingenuity, we
have not let that small fact hinder us in performing feats greater than our
size.
RMCAANA has also been working through RMCME to promote CME
activities in Pakistan. Speakers from the U.S., Western Europe and
Australia have fortnightly online interactive presentations for the
Pakistani audience. The program is currently being run for RMC affiliated physicians, however it is not restricted and other physicians, trainees and medical students are welcome to participate.
Over the last five years, RMCAANA has been very active and working
in collaboration with Rawalpindi Medical College (RMC). With the
help of RMC Alumni on other countries, we established a Burn Center,
which was fully funded and run for a number of years by overseas
Rawalians before being handed over to the Punjab Government as a part
of RMC. We also worked with RMC to expand the Institute of
Psychiatry and funded the salary for two child psychologists for one year
to jump-start the child psychology program. Over the last two years, we
have been working to provide rehabilitation assistance to victims of the
tragic flooding in Pakistan in 2010. This includes providing housing to
APPNA JOURNAL
RMCAANA is also in the process of setting up scholarships for two students (for each year of MBBS) at RMC. The scholarship is being
designed to cover tuition, books, boarding / lodging and other reasonable expenses for selected students.
In the coming years, we are looking to further our collaboration with
our Alma Mater as well as participate more actively in social, educational
and developmental activities being run by APPNA. RMCAANA members are excited to be a part of APPNA and look forward to many projects in collaboration with APPNA and other alumni.
38
SUMMER 2012
PHOTO•GALLERY
M. Shahid Yousuf
Dr. Saima Zafar, APPNA President 2012 addresses
the Spring Meeting Banquet at Aria Hotel, Las Vegas,
NV on March 17, 2012. PHOTO RIGHT>> (L-R) Dr.
Javed Suleman APPNA President Elect 2013, Dr. Javed
Akhtar Chair Board of Trustees, Dr. Joseph Emmanuel
and Dr. Mohammad Suleman Former APPNA Presideht
(L-R) Dr. Aftab Naz (CA) Member Board of Trustees, Dr. Asif Rehman
(NY)APPNA Secretary 2012, Dr. Riaz Chaudhry (NY) BELOW (L-R)
Dr. Farhat Osman (MI) Dr. Naheed Chaudhry (Canada) Dr.Aftab Ahmad
(KY) and Dr. Muslim Jami at the Executive Council Meeting March ë 12
BANQUET PHOTOS
by M. Shahid Yousuf
<<PHOTO LEFT (L-R) Dr.Nayyar (NV) , Dr. Shahid Nusrat (CA)
Dr. Ghayasuddin (TX) and Dr. Farid Qazi APPNA Treasurer 2012
Dr. Mahmood Ijaz (KY) and Mrs. Shazia Ijaz
APPNA JOURNAL
Below Dr Nassar Qureshi (NY) at
the Executive Council Meeting, Las
Vegas NV March 2012
Photo above and two photos below are from the March 17th, 2012 Banquet at the conclusion of
the Spring Meeting of the Executive Council APPNA. Photos below Host Committee Members
39
SUMMER 2012
PHOTO•GALLERY
M. Shahid Yousuf
Photo Center Dr. Saima Zafar with Nicole Porreca Deputy Director and
Political-Military Team Lead, Pakistan Desk, US State Department at
March 16th 2012 dinner, Aria Hotel, Las Vegas Nevada
Dr. Ikram Ullah Khan (NV) former president of APPNA
introduces keynote speaker at Spring 2012 banquet held
during the APPNA Executive Council Meeting Las Vegas.
Dr. Saima Zafar, APPNA President 2012 with Mr. Rob Nabors , Director Legislative
Affairs, President Obama Administration at the banquet March 17th, 2012 where he
was the keynote speaker.
KEMCAANA, WAPPNA, Dr. Mohammad Suleman (LA) and Dr. Nassar Qureshi (NY) together with Dr. Majid Aized have
funded 4 residential units to help young physicians such as those seen in this photo to gain externships, appear in interviews
and in other ways gain experience and residency positions.
Sujawal Sind Floods Project. Discussions with Shine Humanity at the Las Vegas, NV APPNA Spring 2012 APPNA Doctors House of Detroit (L-R) Drs. Rizwan, Shahrukh Khan, Kamran, Waqas Jehangir, Yasir, Salman Mehboob,
Meeting (L-R) Asif Choudhry, Manzoor Tariq, Mubasher Rana, Salman Naqvi, Seema Hassan , Farzana Naqvi. Adnan Malik , Umer Iftikhar,Majid Toseef Aized, Zohaib Ahmed and Adeel Masood
APPNA Social Welfare and Disaster Relief Committee in cooperation
with Layton Rahimtoola Benevolent Trust (LRBT) has set up free eye
camps for the poor in Multan, Mansehra and there are plans to set up
PHOTO BELOW Munirabad APPNA Village so named after APPNA built 128 Soles for Souls. APPNA members in April 2012 raised funds to provide shoes to all in- more camps. Some 12 eye camps are planned funded by APPNA. (All
habitants of Munirabad APPNA village. Some villagers received shoes for the first time Munirabad photos courtesy Mr. Babar Mughal)
homes for the victims of 2010 floods. APPNA funded school is being built.
PHOTO BELOW Winder Water Well
Project of SWDRC Winder, Lasbela District,
Baluchistan was chosed as one of the locations
for a water well dug in cooperation with Hassan Foundation USA. Wells in other provinces
are also being planned by APPNA. (Photo
courtesy Hassan Foundation)
APPNA JOURNAL
40
SUMMER 2012
PHOTO•GALLERY
M. Shahid Yousuf
PHOTO ABOVE AND LEFT St. Louis Chapter Spring Picnic 2012( Photo courtesy Dr. Naseem Shekhani)
PHOTO BELOW Dow Graduate Association of North America 9th Annual Retreat , Orlando Florada April 23,2012
< Photo Left King Edward Medical College Alumni Association of North America (KEMCAANA) Retreat March
19th- 21st 2012 with current and former KEMCAANA Presidents (L-R) Drs. Khalid Mehmood, Masood Akbar, Aisha
Zafar (IN), Hassan Bukhari(TX), Mohammad Haseeb (IL), Mubasher Rana (CA) and Riaz Chaudhry (LA)
Dr. Rukshinda Hameedi ( 4th from left) President 2012 SMCAANA PHOTO RIGHT >>Standing Dr.Aftab Ahmad
with her her graduating class of Sind Medical College Karachi, Pak- Past President SMCAANA (Sind Medical Colsitan at the SMCAANA Retreat March 30th - April 1st 2012 NY
lege Alumni Association of North America), Dr.
Javed Suleman President Elect APPNA 2013, Dr.
Photo 1 st Below Attendees of SMCAANA ReMansoor Alam Executive Director SMCAANA,
treat 2012. (SMCAANA Retreat Photos by Dr. Furrukh Khan) Sitting Dr. Zeba Amir (NY), Dr. Ayesha Iftikhar
(IL) and Dr. Sonia Shakeel (TX) at SMCAANA
Photo 2nd Below Children sing the national anRetreat. 2012 New York ,NY
thems at Illinois Chapter (PPSIL) meeting 4-28-12. PPS (Pakistani-descent Physicians Society) of
Illinois photos courtesy of Dr. Mansoor Alam
PHOTO ABOVE (L-R) Drs.Asif Rehman, Pervaiz
Iqbal and Asad Qamar at DOGANA Retreat.
PHOTO Below Pakistan Physicians Society of
Illinois Executive Committee of 2012
Congresswoman Sandy Adams (R-FL) receives DOGANA award from Dr. Saima Zafar.
Dr. Talha Siddiqui , DOGANA President on left. ( Photo courtesy Dt. Talha Siddiqui)
APPNA JOURNAL
41
SUMMER 2012
PHOTO•GALLERY
M. Shahid Yousuf
Standing L-R Dr. Zehra Ali, Dr. Irfan Ali, Dr. Zahra Yousuf , ?, ?, Dr. Aftab Naz, Mrs Aftab Naz, Dr. Ilyas Rajput, Dr. Zuby Rajput,
Mrs. Talat Lallani, ?, Mrs. Nasir Iqbal, Dr Nasir Iqbal, Dr. Lallani, ?, ?, Dr. Razia Rehman
Sitting Dr. Riaz Chaudhary , Mrs.Shahida Chaudhry, Dr. Raza Hashmi, ?, Dr.
Abdul Rehman
Location Registan Samarkand , May 15th,2012
ABOVE Bus 2 in front of the Kalyan Minaret (built 1127 AD), Bukhara, Uzbekistan Photo RIGHT location Imam
Bukharií s mausoleum (L-R) Tasnim Hassan, Zenaida Chughtai, ?, Shaheen Mian, Aliya Khan, Shaheen Iqbal, Wasima
Yunus, Babra Rana, Talat Bukhari (Photo courtesy Aliya Khan) BELOW RIGHT Bus 2 at the Hast Imam complex of
buildings in Tashkent where the Osman Quran, completed in 651 AD is kept
UZBEKISTAN
TOUR May 2012
APPNA CME tours have
become popolar with members as they offer learning
opportunities.
This year the spring tour
included Russia and Uzbekistan. About 120 members
and their families toured these
countries.
Tourists were excited to see
old centers of culture and
learning such as Tashkent,
Bukhara and Samarkand.
We found the people very
friendly.
LEFT A group of school
students touring Shah
Naqshband Muhammad
Bahauddin Uways al-Bukhari
Mausoleum wanted to be photographed with our group.
APPNA JOURNAL
42
SUMMER 2012
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