Doctor Saida Zafar

Doctor Saida Zafar was born and raised in Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan. In 1946, she enrolled in Lady Harding Medical College in Delhi. Her studies were unexpectedly interrupted by Partition when she was in Hyderabad with her parents. She realized that she would need a visa to return to Delhi. Her family convinced her to resume her studies at the new Dow Medical College in Karachi which had started functioning in 1946. But most of the teachers and students there had left for India. On November 9, 1947, Saida Zafar resumed her studies at the King Edward Medical College in Lahore. She recalls that the city was filled with refugees. She earned a degree in medicine in 1951 and worked as a surgeon at Lady Wellington Hospital for a year. She married her class fellow and friend in 1952, and continued practicing medicine. She went on to set up her own clinic in Lahore.