Dr. Khalida Ghousia Akhtar

Dr. Khalida Ghousia Akhtar was born in Jammu in 1937. She was living with her family in Batote when, at the age of nine, she heard that Partition had occurred. She recalls that it was after the announcement that people in their region started to turn against one another. To save themselves from the violence, Dr. Akhtar's family made the decision to migrate to Pakistan. Dr. Akhtar's family first reached Ranbeer Singh Pura, which was located a few miles away from the border. They learned that the best time to cross the border undetected was between 10 AM and 2 PM. Dr. Akhtar recalls that during those hours, her entire extended family ran to cross the border. She remembers that all the women were crying, and her father and uncle were telling them to save their tears for later and to just run. Dr. Akhtar carried her one-year-old sister as she ran. Along the way, they drank dirty pond water to survive.

Her family eventually settled in Sargodha in Pakistan where they were given a villa in exchange for their lost property and homes. Dr. Akhtar went on to complete medical school, with an emphasis in gynecology and surgery. She opened her own clinic in the Korangi area of Karachi, the city she moved to after she married her husband. The clinic, named Khalida Hospital after her, soon became quite popular in the area, and she would see upwards of 200 patients a day. She had three doctors working with her and a staff of 37 personnel. She mentions that she was the first female doctor in a ten-mile radius in that region. After 11 years, she donated her clinic to Al-Shifa, a hospital and organization dedicated to treating children with disabilities in Karachi.