Sikander Hayat Khan

Sikander Hayat Khan (born March 12, 1938) is a Pakistani surgeon. His family is known to have produced more Doctors than anyone else in the Northern Areas of Pakistan.

Biography

Early life and education

Sikander Hayat Khan was born in the northern areas of Pakistan (Baltistan) on 12th March,1938 to a known magistrate Maulana Abdul Khaliq and Zubeida Khaliq. His elder Brother Nisar Hussien Khan served as Joint Secretary and his younger brother Dr. Shujaat Ali Khan is a known Plastic Surgeon in Fort Worth, Texas, USA.

He was very keen to become a doctor from childhood mainly due to inspiration by his Uncle Late cl Mohammad Yaqoob who was the first Army Doctor from the region.

He completed his Senior Cambridge from Army Burn Hall in Abbottabad and went to Nishter Medical College in Multan and achieved a medical degree. In 1961 he went to England and became a fellow at both Royal Colleges of England & Edinburgh respectively.

Career

He worked for the national health services in United Kingdom for 10 years and then came back to Pakistan and started working for Polyclinic Hospital(Islamabad) as a consultant surgeon and later on in the 1980s he joined the then newly built Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences as Head of Surgery department and later on qualified as a professor of Surgery.

He is the Chairman of Zubeida Khaliq Memorial Trust which he founded in the loving memory of his parents. Its located in the remote area of Sirmik (Baltistan). The initial idea of the trust was to provide basic medical facilities to one of the poorest area's of the world, ( the northern areas of Pakistan ). For an unknown reason, the unfortunate people's of this area have been neglected as far as medical provisions are concerned. Although, trained as a surgeon in the United Kingdom, unlike most Dr. Khan realized the plight of these people and decided to, on his own accord, establish a source of medical aid.

Dr. Khan has financed the whole operation himself. Recently he has received help from his children who are doctors as well. Dr. Khan retired as a professor of surgery and intends to devote more of his time to this cause. With passage of time things have not improved but as often happens in the third world, health is not a high priority in impoverished areas. As a result resources usually go more towards preventive measures rather than therapeutic. But people still fall ill and still die of curable illnesses.

In an effort to boost the therapeutic value of the clinics, it was decided to upgrade the clinics into small hospitals providing certain amount of inpatient treatment including simple surgery. Work has already begun in Sirmik on the new buildings. In the first stages the hospital will include an OPD Operation Theatre, X-Ray path lab and will have the capacity of forty beds, including ten for the children. There will also be a mother and child health care unit to cater to women's illness. The hospital will also pursue preventative programs including hygiene and vaccinations and family planning. The idea behind running the hospital is different from the norm. It is planned that the hospital shall be manned by medical officers, and specialist doctors from Pakistan, as well as various other parts of the world will come and stay for two weeks to treat patients. For this purpose a three bedded cottage is being built next to the hospital where the specialists can stay with their families. As the area is historical and visually beautiful, yet unspoiled by excess tourism there is plenty to see and visit and relax with their families. This program has already been discussed in detail with specialist doctors in Pakistan, the United Kingdom and the United States and has received a lot of enthusiasm.

Awards

The Government of Pakistan presented Dr Sikander Hayat Khan with Tamgh-e-Imtiaz for his excellent services in providing free medical care in Northern Areas.