Founding and early members of Karachi Medicos Association. 1973-74
Photo is courtesy of Dr. Haroon Khan from UK.
Drs. Anwar Jalil, Salman Faridi, Zafarullah Syed, Hamid Zaki, Mughisuddin Ahmed helped in tagging the photo. (all of Class of 1977)
In the 60s and 70’s Dow was the hot bed of politics from its inception in 1948 and onwards all the way to the 1980 when Government put an end to Students Unions. Politics in DMC was a microcosm of national politics with parties divided along ideological and regional lines. So there was the National Student’s Federation representing the left view, the Islami Jamiat-e-Tulaba representing the right, a variety of regional organizations ( Punjab Medicos Organization, Baluch Medicos Organization, Sindh Medicos Organization, Pasthun Medicos Organization and so on; sorry if the exact names were different but they are self explanatory) Karachi Medicos were not be be left behind in the provincial race and KMA was born. And then did not wish to affiliate with the narey-baaz rough necks there was the centrist party called Young Medicos Organization (YMO).
Now the historic photo of KMA. Students in the photo were from DMC class of 1976 to 1979 and likely the founding and early members of the Association,. Missing from the picture are two prominent members Munir Shikari and Azfar Hussain who ran unsuccessfully for the posts of President and General Secretary of DMCSU on KMA ticket. The Patron of KMA was Late Prof. Umar Khan who was the Head of Department of Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology and also served as the Police Surgeon for the City of Karachi, (called Coroner in USA and UK). Students in Dow University are now represented by a Class Representative. What was the cradle of democracy and political training in colleges was thus extinguished. (Amin H. Karim MD April 5 2018)
