Farewell Message of President 2007

Dear APPNA Members,

Happy New Year

It seems like yesterday when the membership of APPNA elected and endorsed me with overwhelming support. I thank you for your immense trust in my leadership. The year 2007 was very enthralling. 2007 was designated as a year of education. APPNA MERIT and APPNA Sukoon were launched which will help to promote health care in Pakistan; free tutoring program was launched; leadership and civil right seminars were arranged which help us to streamline our efforts to address membership issues in USA.

To run our organization smoothly, several policies and procedures for our committees are now in place. After approval by the council and BOT, we have bought a new central office building adjacent to the existing building. The new building was inaugurated on December 16th 2007. This will serve as an APPNA Center to arrange leadership seminars, free clinic, APPNA archive, etc. This year we began using a blast email system to communicate with our members frequently and have saved a substantial amount of mailing expenses. This year we patent/trade mark our organization and its logo with federal registration and now no one can use or abuse “APPNA”.

The Police Hospital in Abbotabad was inaugurated on October 8th 2007 and Girls School in Kathai was inaugurated on December 23rd 2007. Cytogenic Lab at National Institute of Children’s Health in Karachi was inaugurated on December 27th 2007, and eight primary schools were started by APPNA Pakistan in interior Sindh. This year Bone Marrow Registry for South-East Asians, breast cancer awareness program, Hepatitis B and C program, and Karachi Street Children project has been launched. APPNA donated ten thousand dollars to Bangladesh Medical Association for flood relief, $15,000 to LRBT, $15,000 for Pakistan flood relief. Another $7500 was given as a loan to young physicians.

This year our membership reached record high of approximately 3000. The annual meeting was attended by a record number, and 3020 attended the annual banquet. The annual meeting revolved around education, which included youth debates, discussion on democracy and justice, and speeches from Brother Hamza Yousuf and Congressman Al Green.

APPNA members are facing civil right issues whether the way they were treated at the airports or like stories of Dr. Nadeem Hassan. He who was given appropriate papers permitting him to leave for Hajj and on return was not allowed US entry due to his affiliation with the Jamat e Tabliq. Or take the example of Dr. Athar Rana who was initially tried on terrorism charges. When nothing was found, he was subsequently charged with over-billing Medicare for $14000 over a 7 year period. Such accounts prompted me to form a coalition with other organizations who are actively fighting for the civil rights of Muslims in USA. This year, council approved to contribute $100,000 to Muslim Advocates to fight for APPNA members’ rights in USA and advise us case by case if our members face any such predicament. We are working with Muslim Public Action Committee (MPAC) and ISPU. Recently psychiatrist from APPNA and ED of MPAC met Dept of Defense to discuss the psychological need of the prisoners in Guantanomo Bay.

The re-election of President-elect 2006 was tied. This put APPNA in a very difficult situation. The only option, per our constitution, was to have another election which most of our members opposed and expressed their feelings through emails and phone calls. I took the initiative to resolve this matter, requesting the candidates for their help in getting out of this quandary. I appreciate and admire Dr. Zeelaf Munir’s decision to withdraw her candidacy for the President-2008 in favor of Dr. Mahmood Alam in the larger interest of the organization. I salute her exemplary leadership and grace for saving the Association from further divisiveness.

This year we have learnt a lot from the mistakes of the past, and I have initiated many corrective actions including membership verification. An election reform committee was appointed and a detailed report has been presented to the Council for discussion and, God willing, by early next year these reforms will be approved and implemented. Dr. Javed Akhtar is elected as BOT member for 2008.

The winter meeting was started on December 26th with the launching of APPNA Sukoon in Karachi and on December 27th with the CME. However, due to the murder of Benazir Bhutto, a deplorable act of terrorism, I cancelled the rest of the meeting. It was a sad day for Pakistan when the democracy once again was crushed by violence and hopes of the people of Pakistan are robbed. I pray that God gives the people of Pakistan courage to continue to strive for democracy and strength to deal with the atrocity which has affected the whole nation.

My full report will be published in our winter journal. Once again, thank you for your support and trust. I hope I met your expectations.

Nadeem Kazi, MD
President APPNA 2007