Dr Arshad Rehan becomes APPNA president-elect

PESHAWAR: Dr Arshad Rehan, a 1994 graduate of Khyber Medical College (KMC) Peshawar has been elected the president-elect of the Association of Physicians of Pakistan-Descent of North America (APPNA).

He defeated Dr Aisha Zafar, a 1987 graduate of the King Edwards Medical College (KEMC), Lahore.The results were announced at the fall meeting of APPNA in Dallas in the American state of Texas.

APPNA is the largest democratic organization of expatriate Pakistani professionals in the world.Its membership constitutes doctors of Pakistani origin working in the United States of America and Canada.

It holds elections every year for the positions of president-elect, secretary and treasurer. Those elected become part of the organization’s executive committee for the next year. The president-elect stays on the committee for a total of three years, as president-elect, president and then as the Immediate past-president.

APPNA elections are spread over about 10 weeks. The voting is done electronically, carried out by a professional third-party voting company hired specifically for the purpose. Dr Arshad Rehan is a practicing cardiologist and the current secretary of the organization. He had served last year as its treasurer.

Dr Aisha Zafar specializes in internal medicine and is past-president of the KEMC Alumni Association of North America and presently chairwoman of its Board of Trustees.She also is the current chair of APPNA’s charity wing, its Social Welfare and Disaster Relief Committee.

In getting elected as President-elect of APPNA, Dr Arshad Rehan who is the son of the late senator Dr Mohammad Rehan, a leader of the Awami National Party, becomes only the fourth person from the Khyber Medical College Alumni Association of North America to get elected as such.He follows in the footsteps of Dr Amjad Hussain (1982), Dr Nasim Ashraf (1987) and Dr Omar Atiq (2004).