APPNA set to meet in Peshawar after 15 years

PESHAWAR: The Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America (APPNA) is all set to hold its annual winter meeting in the city in the last week of this month.

It is after a hiatus of 15 years that the meeting is being held in Peshawar. The last APPNA winter meeting was held in Peshawar in 2004 when Dr Omar Atiq, a graduate of Khyber Medical College (KMC), was the APPNA president. The then president, Gen Pervez Musharraf, had inaugurated the meeting.

In the years since 2004, the APPNA meeting could not be held in Peshawar because of the scourge of terrorism affecting the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in general and Peshawar in particular. It was not considered safe to hold this meeting in Peshawar.

APPNA is the largest organisation of expatriate professional Pakistanis anywhere in the world. It boasts of an active membership of around 3000 doctors of Pakistani descent in the United States of America and Canada. Major meetings of APPNA include its annual summer convention in North America and then an annual winter meeting in Pakistan.

The winter meeting is held in different major cities of Pakistan mostly on a rotation basis. The city of Peshawar, unfortunately, was deprived of these meetings since 2004. Dr Rashid Hanif is a graduate of the KMC and the current president of the Khyber Medical College Alumni Association (KMCAA).

He is presently a practising gastroenterologist in the state of Maryland in the USA. “The APPNA winter meeting is an opportunity for the expatriate Pakistani physicians to interact with the local doctors and learn from each other,” said Dr Hanif.

“We owe immensely to our homeland and this is one very small thing that we could do for our country,” he added. “It was not easy to bring back the meeting to Peshawar,” Dr Hanif explained.

He elaborated that the suggestion to bring back the meeting was floated by Dr Arshad Rehan, a fellow Khyberian and a past president of KMCAA. After discussions in the KMCAA executive committee, the matter was officially raised with Dr Naseem Shekhani, president

of APPNA.

“The KMCAA is very grateful to Dr Shekhani for agreeing to hold the APPNA’s 42nd winter meeting in Peshawar,” said Dr Rashid Hanif. According to him, Dr Shekhani gave them a go-ahead and agreed that it was time for Peshawar’s turn to host the meeting.

Dr Arshad Rehan is the co-chair of the APPNA host committee for the meeting. “I am delighted that the conference is being held in Peshawar. The people of this city and KP suffered a lot in the war for Pakistan’s survival in the last many years. This meeting is a tribute to the resilience of our city and its people,” said Dr Rehan.

According to Dr Rehan, Pakistani-American doctors would deliver lectures during the conference and hold a series of workshops at the Hayatabad Medical Complex, Khyber Teaching Hospital and Lady Reading Hospital. Workshops in different specialities would be held on the 27th of December, followed by a formal inauguration of the meeting the same evening.

The 28th of the month is reserved for lectures on different topics. The meeting would conclude on the evening of December 28, with a gala dinner hosted in honour of the delegates. A highlight of the meeting would be APPNA faculty conducting a career counselling seminar for the students of Khyber Medical College on Thursday, December 26. Dr Hanif and Rehan are profuse in praising the efforts of the local hosts.