Wajid Ali Khan Burki

Wajid Ali Khan Burki^[a] (28 October 1900 – 17 January 1989) was a distinguished ophthalmologist and surgeon widely recognised as an expert in the field of eye care, agriculturist, diplomat, and author who was a three-star rank general of the Pakistan Army Medical Corps. He has been described as the "Father of Medical Services in Pakistan" and the "Argyll Robertson of Pakistan".

Born in the Punjab Province, Khan graduated from Government College, Lahore in 1919 and traveled to the United Kingdom to pursue medical studies at the University of St. Andrews. Beginning his career as a junior clinical assistant at the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, he later advanced to senior assistant and earned his Doctorate of Medicine in 1925. He joined the Indian Medical Service in 1926, ranking first among the only four officers selected from a pool of over sixty foreign-qualified candidates. After working in military hospitals in Jullundur, Bakloh, Quetta, and Karachi, he earned his Diploma in Opthalmic Medicine and Surgery at Moorfields Eye Hospital in 1932, having trained under John Herbert Parsons. He then became an eye specialist at a military hospital in Meerut. As acting assistant director of medical services in the Western Desert Campaign of World War II, he was recognised with the honour of Member of the British Empire (MBE).

In the Burma campaign, he played a major role in combating malaria and other diseases among British and Indian troops as assistant director of the 7th Indian Infantry Division. He received two Mentions in Despatches, the first during the Abyssinian Campaign, as leader of a field ambulance unit of the 5th Infantry Division, and the second for his contribution in the Battle of the Admin Box. He also served in the Battles of Imphal and Kohima, earning the Commander of the British Empire (CBE). In 1946, he was appointed to a three-member committee tasked with organising and integrating army medical services into a single corps.

After the Partition of British India in 1947, he opted for the Pakistan Army Medical Corps, becoming the second most senior officer and first Deputy Director General of Medical Services. In 1954, he was promoted to Director General and the Surgeon General of the Pakistan Armed Forces. In October 1958, he was tasked with enhancing the efficiency of hospitals across the country; notable improvements were observed within days, particularly in Karachi. In recognition of his effective leadership, General Ayub Khan appointed Wajid as the Health Minister following his coup d'état later that month. In office, he established hundreds of medical facilities, such as the rural health scheme,^[b] and programs for public health which included village dispensaries, the eradication of malaria and smallpox, control of tuberculosis, and the organisation of eye camps. He was also a supporter of worker's rights and members of the press.

Amid President Ayub Khan's overseas visits, Wajid served as acting President of Pakistan. Additionally, he held several ministerial roles and helped facilitate the emigration of Pakistani workers to the UK and the Middle East in the 1960s. He was instrumental in negotiating with the British Government to establish free immigration rights, which gave the economy of Pakistan a massive boost. He also introduced progressive labor legislation and pioneered Pakistan's second national labor policy.

Following the Bradford smallpox outbreak of 1962, Wajid cracked down on poor vaccination and isolation practices in Karachi. Moreover, he criticised the British government for singling out Pakistani immigrants for the outbreak while ignoring similar conditions among Indian immigrants, questioning the double standard. In meetings with British officials, he condemned the physical violence and abuse directed at Pakistanis in Britain, arguing it stemmed largely from economic fear and resentment.

Between 1958 to 1963, he spearheaded the establishment of several medical organisations, including the Armed Forces Pathological Laboratory, Armed Forces Post Graduate Medical Institute, Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (as Founding Chairman), College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan (as Founding President) and the National Health Laboratories. He was also influential in the founding of Islamabad when the city was being planned in 1959 and served as Pakistan's Ambassador to Scandinavia from 1963 to 1966. At the age of 88, Khan died from lung cancer in 1989.

Wajid Ali Khan was born on 28 October 1900 in Jullundur, in a Sunni Muslim Ormur family. His father, Jehan Khan Burki, the Khan of Baba Khel, was a landowner.^[5] Wajid had four brothers, the youngest of which, Abdul Shaafi Khan Burki (1916–1969), was a pole vault champion who led the All India team to the British Empire Games in 1934.^[6][7][8]

He received his early education at Government School Jullundur and Forman Christian School Jullundur (1906–1916), Government College Lahore (1916-1919) and then went to the United Kingdom to study medicine at the University of St. Andrews (1919–1924).^[9][4][10] After graduation, Wajid began working as junior clinical assistant at the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital from 1924 to March 1925 and then as a senior clinical assistant.^[4] In October 1925, he received his Doctorate of Medicine degree from the University of St Andrews after submitting his thesis titled, "Anophthalmia and Microphthalmia."^[11]

Wajid married Iqbal Bano Khanum, a Pashtun, in 1935 and they had five children, three sons Javed Burki, Jamshed Burki, Dr. Nausherwan K. Burki and twin daughters.^[4]

In 1961, "Barque's Pakistan Trade Directory and Who's who" described him as "an amiable and jovial person, frank, forthright and outspoken. One has to be always alert, always at one's toes, to be popular with him."^[12][13] He enjoyed shooting and fishing, shared fishermen tales, and also contributed to cattle breeding, introducing the Jersey strain to Pakistan. Fond of horses, he held the positions of chairman at the Rawalpindi Race Club and steward at the Jockey Club in Pakistan.^[14][9][15]

Standing 6 feet tall, Wajid was commissioned into the Indian Medical Service of the British Indian Army on 10 May 1926,^[16] ranking as top officer among the only four officers selected from a pool of over sixty foreign qualified candidates.^[17] He worked in military hospitals in Jullundur, Bakloh, Quetta, and from 1928 to 1932 in Karachi. After returning to the United Kingdom for further studies in medicine, he obtained his DOMS degree in ophthalmology at Moorfields Eye Hospital in 1932, having trained under John Herbert Parsons and published three papers on exophthalmia and microphthalmia. He was then appointed as an eye specialist at the Indian Military Hospital in Meerut.^{[4][9][18][15][19][20]} He was on military leave outside of British India up to 30 September 1933.^[21]

During World War II, his career advanced significantly. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and tasked with leading a field ambulance unit in the 5th Infantry Division (India) during the East African/Abyssinian campaign from 1940 to 1941. He served as the acting assistant director of medical services of the division in the Western Desert campaign from 1941-42. In recognition of his services, he was awarded the Member of the Order of the British Empire, promoted to full colonel in 1942, and took on the role of assistant director medical services of the 7th Indian Infantry Division in the Burma campaign, where he played a key role in controlling malaria and other diseases among British and Indian soldiers. He was twice mentioned in despatches, for participating in the Abyssinian campaign and Battle of the Admin Box. He also served in the Battle of Imphal and Battle of Kohima and earned the Companion of the Order of the British Empire for distinguished services.^[17]

In April 1945, Colonel Wajid was appointed as the Commandant of Army Medical Corps (India) No. 2 Centre (North), Lucknow.^[22] Daya Ram Thapar recalled that in this role, Colonel Wajid had "proved most useful in planning the training of the men as he had personal knowledge of the capabilities of our men as well as their shortcomings, under actual field service conditions." In 1946, he was also appointed to a three-man committee tasked with organising and integrating army medical services into a single corps.^[17] He commanded the Centre in Lucknow until the Partition of British India in August 1947.^[22]

Following the Independence of Pakistan on 14 August 1947, S.M.A. Faruki and Wajid were the two most senior medical officers. They were assigned special numbers, with PA100001 going to Faruki and PA100002 to Wajid.^[23]

Subsequently, Wajid was promoted to Brigadier and appointed Deputy Director General of Medical Services. Although approved to be promoted to the rank of Major General before partition, he was officially promoted in 1951.^[24] On 27 September 1954, he was promoted to Lieutenant General and succeeded Lieut-Gen S.M.A. Faruki as the Director General of the Armed Forces Medical Services. He became the Colonel Commandant of Pakistan Army Medical Corps in 1955.^[25][4]

Reportedly, Wajid did not see eye to eye with fellow Medical Corps General Mohammad Akram.^[26]

During the 1956 survey of Pakistan, it was reported that as the Surgeon General of the Pakistan Armed Forces, Wajid was thanked along with the rest of his colleagues for their cooperation by the Nutrition Survey Team who arrived from the United States.^[27][28][29]

He was appointed Federal Minister for Health and Social Welfare on 12 October 1958 taking oath on 28 October. On 13 October, Commander-in-Chief General Ayub Khan assigned Wajid the task of improving the efficiency of hospitals and health agencies. Within days, hospitals in Karachi showed significant improvement, and the medical services took on a new outlook. When questioned by the press about the new look in medical administration, Wajid remarked, "When a doctor becomes greedy, he is no longer a good doctor. I want to eliminate greed in the medical profession and restore it to its former position of respect and honor." He had earlier expressed dissatisfaction with the administration of civil hospitals in Lahore and Karachi, stating, "We must put such institutions under the charge of army officers to clean up the rot."^[30][17]

M. N. Mahmood was promoted to Lieutenant General and succeeded him as Director General of Medical Services on 30 October 1958.^[31]

Lieutenant Generals Azam Khan, Wajid Ali Khan, and Khalid M. Shaikh were ordered by General Ayub Khan to go to President Iskandar Ali Mirza and tell him to resign, which he did on 27 October 1958. Iskandar sent a secret telegram to the Secretary of State in Washington on 6 November 1958 about the confrontation.^{[32][33][34][35]}

Wajid was appointed Federal Minister for Health and Social Welfare on 12 October 1958 taking oath on 28 October. He played an influential role in advising and formulating the health reforms and policies of President Ayub Khan's military administration.^[4]

Wajid was pro-modern medicine and tried to ban Unani Tibb in 1959, referring to it as quackery. As a result, Hakeem Muhammad Saeed led a campaign in support of Tibb which led to Wajid withdrawing his proposal after President Ayub Khan passed a law legalising Tibb.^[36][37][38]

Elected as the first President of the Ophthalmological Society of Pakistan on 19 December 1957 at the King Edward Medical University in Lahore, he resigned on 20 February 1959 due to commitments as Health Minister.^[39] By the end of that month, he announced the second labour policy of Pakistan.^[40]

When Queen Elizabeth II visited the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in November 1959, she formally signed the Roll. To commemorate this notable event in the history of the college, Wajid was among those offered Honorary Fellowship and was one of the nine individuals who accepted the honor.^[41]

On 17 February 1960, Wajid took oath as Minister of Health, Labour, and Social Welfare in Field Marshal Ayub Khan's second cabinet.^[42] He allowed many Pakistani workers to move to Britain in the 1960s and forcefully negotiated with the British government to enable free immigration. This not only benefited the Pakistani economy but also set the stage for increased immigration of Pakistanis to the Middle East.^[43][44][45]

He visited Pahlavi Iran from 19 April 1960 to 25 April 1960, on an invitation from the Iranian Minister of Health, where he was awarded Iran's Nishan-e-Humayun award.^[46]

In instances of President Ayub Khan's overseas visits, Wajid assumed the role of acting President of Pakistan. Notably, when Premier Nikita Khrushchev's claimed in May 1960 that an American aircraft flew from Peshawar Air Station over Soviet territory for a photographic mission, Wajid, as acting President, convened an emergency meeting and denied the allegations.^[47]

On 1 August 1960, he tasked the Pakistan Army to assist in fighting cholera which had wreaked havoc, causing 200 deaths in eight districts of West Pakistan in two months.^[48] That same month, he was elected as an honorary member of the rotary club of Pakistan.^[49]

He laid the foundation stone for the SEATO Technical Training Centre in Karachi on 16 September 1960 and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London that year.^[50]

Wajid announced that Pakistan would spend $21,000,000 on family planning during the second five-year plan which was launched in October 1960.^[51] In May 1960, as part of a voluntary effort, the local people of Shahabad, a village located about 45 miles from Peshawar, along with the Government of Pakistan, began a project to establish a primary health center in the village. The local community donated five acres of land for the center, which received funding from the International Cooperation Administration. The center, with plans for three sub-centers in neighbouring villages, aimed to serve the healthcare needs of 90,000 people and provide training for new nurses. Construction took eight months to complete. The site, chosen by Health Minister Wajid, was strategically located on the right bank of the Indus, half a mile from the junction with the Kabul River.^[52]

In 1960, he said a curb on the high birth rate was necessary to prevent food shortage across the country and that most families barely manage to subsist.^[53][54]

In November 1960, he inaugurated the sixth All-Pakistan Medical Conference at the Pakistan Military Academy House.^[55]

In March 1961, Wajid stated to the press that he had agreed to allot five seats in the medical colleges of Pakistan for students from Saudi Arabia and augment the strength of the medical mission in Saudi Arabia. Further stating that if land was allotted, Pakistan may build a hospital in Saudi Arabia.^[56]

On 20 May 1961, Wajid welcomed United States Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Lady Bird Johnson, and Jean Kennedy Smith at Karachi airport.^[56][57] As a strong advocate for labourers rights, Wajid prescribed 'shock treatment' for mill owners in order to make them treat their workers better in a speech given on 20 August 1961.^[58]

He was designated as Federal Minister of Education & Scientific Research, Kashmir Affairs and Minority Affairs on 2 March 1962.^[42] Later that month, he hosted First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and her sister Lee Radziwill during their goodwill tour of Pakistan from 21–26 March.^[59][60] The Journal of Medical Education in its 1962 edition, said that Wajid was commended by the Association of American Medical Colleges for his contributions to enhancing medical education and community health conditions in Pakistan. The journal highlighted that he was instrumental in fostering collaboration between the Government of Pakistan and the University of Maryland School of Medicine to establish the International Center for Medical Research and Training at the Institute of Hygiene in Lahore.^[61]

In May 1962, he accompanied President Ayub Khan on his visit to East Pakistan where they were received by Governor Ghulam Faruque Khan.^[62]

Wajid was appointed as Special Assistant to President Ayub Khan on 9 June 1962, with the privileges of a minister but without a position in the cabinet, serving until 19 October 1963.^[63][64]

On 10 October 1962, his alma mater, University of St. Andrews conferred him with an Honorary doctorate. During his visit to the United States, the University of Maryland, Baltimore awarded him the LL.D on 24 October 1962.^{[65][66][67][68]}

Wajid was appointed as Ambassador of Pakistan (resident in Stockholm) to the Scandinavian countries Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and accredited to Finland, arriving in Helsinki on 21 October 1963 where he presented his letters of Credence to President Urho Kekkonen.^{[69][70][71][72][73]}

Wajid lived a quiet life after retirement and kept himself busy at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan as President.

In 1972, the Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry's Trade Journal, described W.A. Burki as "a Medical Specialist by profession but a straight honest and truthful soldier by vocation".^[74]

The Ophthalmological Society of Pakistan in its meeting in 1981 awarded Wajid the Ramzan Ali Syed Gold Medal presented by the Chief Guest Prince Karim Aga Khan but Wajid refused it, telling the organization to award it to Professor Raja Mumtaz, who Wajid said was "an institution in himself and a great anthropologist". Raja reluctantly accepted and was awarded officially in 1986.^[75]

In 1988, Wajid noticed a persistent cough and after undergoing tests, was diagnosed with lung cancer in December 1988. Despite his earlier days as a heavy smoker, he and Field Marshal Ayub Khan had quit smoking on the advice of Prof Charles Wells, who had come to Pakistan to guide the Medical Reforms Commission. Wajid, however, chose to keep his diagnosis a secret, even from his wife, and explicitly instructed his doctors not to inform anyone, with his oldest son, Dr. Nausherwan Burki, being the only one who was aware of his condition.

On 15 January 1989, two days before his death, he had chaired a meeting at the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan and the news of his passing came as a shock to the medical and journalist communities, and his family who had no knowledge of his illness. President Ghulam Ishaq Khan mourned his death and Wajid was buried with full military honours.^[76]

• 'The General Wajid Ali Burki Medal' is awarded to one deserving graduating student each year by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan at its convocation each year.^[77][78]
• The Burki Urdu Medium School in Lahore was named after him.^[79]

• The 1993 edition of the Royal College of Physicians Munk's Roll said that "Wajid Ali Burki specialized in opthalmology, but he had wider interests and an exceptional talent which insured his success in administrative services to his country at the highest level" and that he "achieved eminence in every field that he was called upon to play a part in".^[14]

Humphrey Neame; Wajid Ali Khan (1925). Glaucoma Secondary to Choroidal Sarcoma. The Treatment of Painful Blind Glaucomatous Eyes. Vol. 9. London: British Journal of Ophthalmology. pp. 618–627.

Wajid Ali Khan (1926). Pedigree of Lamellar Cataract. Vol. 10. London: British Journal of Ophthalmology. pp. 387–389.

Wajid Ali Khan (1926). Atypical Coloboma of the Iris. Vol. 10. London: British Journal of Ophthalmology. pp. 389–390.

Wajid Ali Khan (1926). Pathogenesis of Microphthalmia. Vol. 10. London: British Journal of Ophthalmology. pp. 625–648.

"Ordinances passed by Lt. General W.A. Burki" (PDF). Ministry of Law and Justice (Pakistan). 1961. pp. 77–8, 162, 185.

Burki, W. A. (April 1962). Post-Revolution Labor Policy and Planning [in Pakistan]. Eastern Worker, Bureau of Labor Publications, Karachi.^[80][81]

Burki, Wajid A. (1988). Autobiography of an army doctor in British India and Pakistan. Rawalpindi: Burki House.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)^[82]

• (2) Mentioned in despatches
• Appointed Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1941, in recognition of distinguished services in the Middle East.^[93]
  • Promoted to Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) on 13 November 1945 by King George VI in recognition of gallant and distinguished services in Burma during World War II.^[94]
• Medallion of Deucalion (1956)^[c]
• Nishan-e-Humayun of Iran (1960)^[46]
• Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London (1960)^[50]