LARKANA: Prof Dr Bilqees Malik, an eminent gynaecologist and considered to be the pioneer of antenatal care in Larkana division, passed away on Saturday at the age of 92.

She was “teacher of teachers” in her field, said her long-time associate Dr Jan Muhammed Shaikh.

She served as a professor at the Gynaecology and Obstetrics department of the Chandka Medical College.

The population of the entire Larkana was almost totally oblivious of the existence and importance of antenatal care before she introduced it here, said Dr Shaikh.

Born in Karachi on Feb 20, 1929, Prof Bilqees Malik belonged to a reputable family of Sialkot. She did her MBBS from the Dow Medical College, Karachi, in 1958. She later did her FCPS and went to the Royal Medical College London and did her FRCS. She went to US for advanced courses and returned to Pakistan in 1972 and headed a health project in Peshawar. She had a meeting with her colleague, Dr Begum Ashraf Abbasi, an MBBS position-holder from Bombay University, in Islamabad.

Begum Abbasi was associated with the PPP and close to then prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. She had contested from the Qambar-Warah to become an MNA and subsequently she was made deputy speaker of the National Assembly.

Dr Bilqees Malik through Dr Begum Ashraf Abbasi met Z.A. Bhutto who expressed his wish to establish a medical college in upper Sindh. He asked Prof Bilqees to lead the department of gynaecology.

When she took over the charge, the hospital comprised of only four beds. Her devotion, dedication and commitment could be gauged from the fact that she mostly slept on a table in the ward.

On April 21, 1973, the Chandka Medical College was established in Larkana when the then CM Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi along with Sindh Health Minister Abdul Waheed Katpar inaugurated it. Soon after the establishment of the CMC, Z.A. Bhutto came to Larkana and discussed with her the idea of establishing hospitals in Rahim Yar Khan and Larkana.

She briefed the then UAE ruler Shaikh Zyed Bin Sultan Al-Nehyan about the project in the presence of Z.A. Bhutto in Larkana. She was made in-charge of the project and entrusted to supervise it. She with full spirit continued supervising the project, heading the department of gynaecology and obstetrics too.

She devoted her entire life to serve the ailing humanity and never visited back to her home town.

Zulfikar Qadri, a social worker and intellectual, said that once former prime minister Benazir Bhutto fell ill in the central prison of Sukkur during General Zia’s era, she declined to get medicine from the jail’s medical officer. She insisted to be checked and prescribed medicines only by Prof Dr Bilaqees Malik.

She visited the central prison on her request and got her checked.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2023