Award of Distinction
Dr Syed Husain Mohammad Jafri
Dr Jafri’s academic career is remarkable for its diversity of learning and experience. In 1960 he was awarded a PhD from Lucknow University in Islamic Thought and in 1966 a PhD from the University of London in Islamic History. During 1982 – 1983, when the curriculum of the Medical College was being planned, Dr Cheves Smythe, the College’s first dean, considered the regulation of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council for compulsory courses in Islamic and Pakistan Studies as an opportunity to introduce humanities into the medical curriculum.
As most medical colleges in Pakistan simply repeated the secondary and higher secondary school courses, Dr Smythe searched for someone to design a fundamentally different course of study. From the time that Professor Jafri accepted the Dean’s challenge he was an active and dedicated member of the Faculty of Health Sciences. He brought to the Medical College international experience of culture, politics and teaching in higher education from the University of London, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, American University of Beirut and the Australian National University, Canberra. Dr Jafri has published and presented extensively and is fluent in Arabic, Persian, Urdu and English. From this rich background he developed and taught a broad-based curriculum under the rubric of Islamic and Pakistan Studies, enriched by numerous accomplished speakers from Pakistan who were persuaded to speak by him for the benefit of medical students in their first year of studies.
