RAWALPINDI, June 17: In Pakistan Army history, a female doctor became the first female to hold the rank of Major-General. In a straightforward rank-wearing ceremony held at GHQ on Monday, Lieutenant General Karamat Ahmed Karamat, Surgeon General of the Pakistan Army, pinned the new badges of ranks on Brigadier Dr. Shahida Malik of the Army Medical Corps.

Dr Shahida has taken on a new role as Inspector General of the Pakistan Army hospitals. He was previously Deputy Commandant (Administrative and Support Services) at the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology and the National Institute of Heart Diseases, Rawalpindi. The job involves managing approximately 31 army hospitals across the nation.

Dr Shahida, a fifty-six-year-old lady who graduated from Fatima Jinnah Medical College in 1969, is one of the few female officers in the Pakistan Army. The majority of these female officers are employed by the health and nursing departments. At a meeting of the Selection Board for the promotion of Brigadiers to the rank of Major-General held at GHQ, Rawalpindi, in early February, Dr. Shahida, who had served for thirty-two years in the Pakistan Army, was chosen for promotion.

She was one of the 27 and the only woman among the 132 brigadiers that the Selection Board had this year under consideration for promotion to the rank of Major General.

Her promotion not only makes her the first female major general in Pakistan Army history, but it also adds another accolade to the family. With her promotion, she and her spouse become the first husband and wife to serve as generals in the Pakistan Army. Her husband is Major General Asad Malik, the Commandant of the Army Medical College in Rawalpindi.