ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali on Monday appointed Dr Shama Khalid as first women governor for Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), who will take oath today (Tuesday). On the second death anniversary of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto, President Zardari had announced that the government would appoint a woman as governor for Gilgit-Baltistan.
Dr Shama Khalid, it may be mentioned, is a leading social worker, who has voluntarily worked in different parts of the GB by establishing free summer medical camps every year. She also worked for an NGO with an objective to “save the children” from 1999-2001.
Later from 2003-2010, she served with the UNHCR on a project for the welfare of Afghan women and children refugees. Dr Shama is the first lady doctor from Gilgit-Baltistan. She graduated from the Khyber Medical College, Peshawar, in 1968. Later, she served in the Ministry of Population Welfare for 20 years, till 1989.
She also taught in the Women Medical College, Abbotabad, from 2001 till 2003. Her father Wazir Muhammad Ashraf Khan, belonging to Astore in Gilgit, was the first law graduate from the Aligarh University from the region in 1939. Dr Shama has three daughters, all of them working as civil judges in different parts of the country.
