Major General Shahida Malik

Major General Shahida Malik, HI (M), SI (M), SJ, is a retired and high-ranking two-star general officer and a former deputy commander (Surgeon-General) of the Pakistan Army Medical Corps. She is the first woman in the Pakistan Armed Forces to have reached to a two-star rank, and was also a first woman general officer in the history of Pakistan as well as in the Muslim world.

Trained as an army medic and a field combat officer, her army career well served in the Indo-Pakistani wars and is also a recipient of highest military decoration as well as the most-decorated female general officer. She took an honorary retirement in 2004 and retired as the inspector-general and deputy commander of the Pakistan Army Medical Corps.

Shahida Malik worked day and night and never stood 2nd in class. She passed her Matric and gained FSc as a Talent Scholar. In matric, she stood 1st in Rawalpindi Division and in FSc she stood 2nd in the board with just one mark. Shahida joined Fatima Jinnah Medical College Lahore and always worked hard and stood amongst the top students. Later when Shahida qualified in 1969, she had distinction and Gold Medal in Surgery.

Shahida started her house job in the hospital attached to Fatima Jinnah Medical College Lahore. She was utterly disappointed to see the state of poor patients and apathy of most of the doctors. There was no accountability at any stage and this made her extremely unhappy, as soon as her father told her that Army was inducting doctors, she applied immediately.  

Shahida Malik joined Army Medical Corps in February 1970 as GDMO (General Duty Medical Officer) and was posted as Lieutenant at CMH Jhelum. In 1972, she was posted to CMH Risalpur and was promoted to the rank of Captain, following this it was CMH Rawalpindi and then for a very short time in PNS Shifa Karachi. From Karachi Shaihda was posted to CMH Quetta and promoted to the rank of Major.

Shahida accompanied her husband to UK for his fellowship from 1977 to 1979. On returning from UK, she was posted to CMH Rawalpindi as Staff Surgeon till 1986 when she was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 1986, she was then posted to CMH Peshawar as MO I/C Family Wing till 1995.

In 1995, Shahida reported to AFM College Rawalpindi for MSc Advanced Medical Administration   Course held by Quaid-i-Azam University. She topped the course and was awarded ‘Burki Gold Medal’. This qualification prepares the administrator of various hospitals to perform even more efficiently in further managing and providing excellent patient care to patients in hospitals. In short, it is a detailed one year course that prepares a hospital administrator to perform his job in the best possible manner.

During all this period her competence and compassion with patients were rewarded by excellent Annual Confidential Reports (ACR) and this made her promotion possible whenever due. In short, her honesty, hard work, excellent doctor-patient relation won for her many friends and excellence in her profession.

In 1996, Shahida was appointed Deputy Commandant (Administration and Support Services) a daunting job, but she took it as a great challenge. AFIC/NIHD is a premier institute of the country with a state of the art cardiac care both in Cardiology and Cardiac surgery. Her immediate desire as an administrator was to provide the best medical care to cardiac patients.

Shahida gave the best to her very successful family and the same to her profession. The end result was excellent in both fields.