Former executive director of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) Dr Seemin Jamali has been conferred the honorary rank of lieutenant colonel.

The army honoured her in recognition of her lifelong services.  Dr Jamali is known for her diligence, discipline and devotion. Reports said among her patients and the medical community she is known as the 'iron lady', 'bullet lady' and also the 'bomb-proof lady'.

According to her colleagues and friends, she always led from the front whether it was managing victims of bomb blasts, targeted killings or looking after patients of pandemics.

“The city of Karachi once badly affected by violence owes a lot to Dr Seemin who saved countless lives in the JPMC’s emergency department by relentlessly working in those testing times,” recalled one of her colleagues as she retires from the post of JPMC executive director after three-decade services.

She has been described as a ‘trendsetter’ in public-sector healthcare. She joined JPMC as a medical officer in 1988 after completing her medical education in Nawabshah and a house job at Civil Hospital Karachi.

In 1993, she acquired an advanced degree in public health management (MPHM) from Thailand and was appointed as the in-charge of JPMC’s emergency department in 1995. Later, she was awarded a scholarship for a post-doctoral fellowship in public health policy and injury prevention at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Baltimore, US. Dr Jamali became the hospital’s joint executive director in 2010 and then executive director after six years.

Reportedly, she was on duty the day a bomb blast occurred at the doors of the hospital in 2010, injuring many, including her. This devastation motivated her to transform the emergency department into a state-of-the-art unit with the help of public-private assistance.

During her service, she received numerous national and international tributes and awards, including Tamgha-e-Imtiaz and Women Achievement Awards. A report quoted Dr Jamali as saying: “It was very difficult to prove one’s self in the men’s world. In fact, I will say male hatred has been my biggest obstacle, though there were many who appreciated me. I achieved what I dreamed of because I looked at my job as a labour of love and passion.”