04/06/2018
I am one of the doctors who graduated in those years in which doctors didn't get any promotion for almost 10 years after their graduation. Punjab Public service commission hired in 1995 last– after that for the next 10 years, there was no more hiring. I did grow in my capacity and skills but when you are not growing in rank, it is a dead end towards your progress; especially for a person like me whose dedication and commitment towards their career and profession was commendable.
I worked really hard to get a promotion, I opened many cases, did confrontations with my higher officials and within secretariat as well– but it was futile. I have always been very passionate about my field, I wanted to clear my exams as early as possible to start my clinical years and practice medicine in it's true essence. One day, my senior colleague told me that bad-luck was obstructing the way of my goals, I looked him in the eyes and told him that I didn't believe in bad luck–I believed that I can make my own luck–I changed my strategy; shifted from public sector to private sector and within the next 10 years, I became an associate professor, then a professor and now I am the head of the department. I opted Gynae because it used to be a female dominant field, any other department gave more opportunities to the male doctors but in gynae, female doctor always took the lead.
My elder son is doing LLB, following his father's foot steps as he is a senior advocate and my younger son is in pre-medical and I hope that he becomes a doctor like me. I love Golf because I like starting a new creative hobby. I started playing Golf with my husband and got quite efficient in it. I want to fight the aging myth and for that, I do regular yoga and exercise because in the end, age is nothing but just a number.
-Dr.Fozia Umber Qureshi
Head of dept. Gynaecology
