Director's Message

The last few years were extraordinary in, unprecedented times because of Cov​id. During these six years, we collectively embarked on a remarkable journey to advance the achievements with the vision of the Department of ​Surgery.

These past years, while maintaining our ambitious research agenda, we have achieved the mission's goals with the development of the departmental structure, which supported the mandate of the Department of Surgery. The following offices/processes were created for efficiency and effectiveness in work.

  • Office of Academia and Research in Surgery (OARS) – Research Focus

  • Office of Education and Training in Surgery (OETS) – Education and Training

  • Group for Appraisal and Promotion- Advisory role for departmental faculty for faculty promotion

  • Faculty Appraisal Scoring Template (both for Academic and Clinical Services) – Objective qualitative and quantitative method of faculty appraisal

  • Online Morbidity and Mortality Form ​

There were numerous departmental accomplishments; Annual Surgical Conferences of the Department of Surgery were initiated. To date, seven AKU Annual Surgical Conferences have been held on topics like Complications, Innovation, Surgical Oncology, Global Surgery, Trauma, Surgical Education and Training and Surgical Research. Work has been initiated for the 8th AKU Annual Surgical Conference scheduled in February 2023. The Centre of Global Surgical Care (CGSC) culminated from the 4th Conference and is today a thriving Centre working with AKHSP and the outreach community in improving the surgical care provided in the procedures.   

Department of Surgery is honoured to have faculty recognized at the national and international level with numerous awards and leadership positions. Dr Saida Rasul in recognition of serving with the greatest distinction and excellence, benefitting the people of British Columbia and many other countries in 2015 received the “The Order of British Columbia". Sitara-i-Imtiaz conferred to Dr Farhat Abbas in 2015 and Dr Ather Enam in 2016, and Dr Nuzhat Faruqui received Tamgha-i-Imtiaz in 2018.

At the end of 2021, the Department of Surgery had 11 sections with 12 residency and 8 fellowship programs with more than 76 full-time faculty and 130 trainees in the PG programs. Many of the department's faculty are graduates of either/ and the UG or PG program. The Ophthalmology section will be converting to an independent Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences from January 2022.  

We are thankful to all the committee/faculty members, including the admin staff, for their diligent work, without whose support, all the great work would not have been possible.​​

Dr Gulzar S. Lakhani  
Director - Metrics and Evaluation - Medical College;
Director and Lecturer – Department of Surgery;       
The Aga Khan University
​​​​​​​​​​December, 2021​