A SON’S TRIBUTE

A SON’S TRIBUTE TO HIS FATHER

28^th December 2010 will be 9^th death Anniversary of my Father Brig ® M. Alimuddin, who’s presence and guidance has been missed by me from day to day and from time to time and the vacuum thus created can never be filled.

The Rich Legacy and traditions left by him will remain a beacon of light for generations to come.

All friends and well wishers are requested to join me in a humble prayer for the departed soul.

Dr. Babur Zahiruddin

BRIG (RETD) M. ALIMUDDIN

(1917 – December 28, 2001)

It was cloudy morning of August 25, 1947 that a shy captain of the Royal Army’s Medical Corps, Mohammad Alimuddin, who later retired from Pakistan Army as a Brigadier, landed at the Karachi Sea port with two suitcases along with his family from a Dutch naval hospital ship from Bombay. From here, he began a journey stretching over three generations which started way back in 1917. Alimuddin was born in a humble Pathan family in 1917, at Rani Sagar in Bihar state of India. His grandfather hailed from Russian Turkistan who came to the subcontinent in 1857 to take part in the war of independence and to wage Jihad against the British Raj. After the war they settled down in the plains of Bihar and thrived and prospered there.

Alimuddin received his early education from a school about six miles away from his hometown and he had to walk every day. He did his medical graduation from the Prince of Wales Medical College, Patna in 1938 and after doing his house job joined the Royal Army’s Medical Corps in 1939.

He took part in the Burma campaign and was part of the liberation forces which swept across Java, Sumatra, Borneo and Singapore. He was stationed aboard a Dutch naval hospital ship for more than one year in the Pacific and witnessed the surrender of Japan while on duty in Singapore.

After the World War II ended, he did his graduation in ophthalmology from the Royal Army Hospital at Calcutta and after independence, he opted for Pakistan leaving behind his parents, relatives and ancestral properties in India as he was a true patriot and wanted to serve the newly born Islamic Republic of Pakistan. He was the pioneer and founder of the Military Hospital, Rawalpindi, where he served till his retirement in 1974. He was sent to the United Kingdom by Pakistan Army in 1950 for specialization in ophthalmology. He got a diploma from Royal College of Surgeons, England, and returned to Pakistan in 1952. He was founder of the department of ophthalmology in the Pakistan Armed forces and also laid foundation of the Eye Department at the Military Hospital Rawalpindi, and other combined Military Hospital’s in united Pakistan.

During his stay in the Army he held many command appointments apart from his professional duties as an ophthalmologist and commanded MH, Rawalpindi, CMH Quetta and was posted as DDMS Army in the GHQ at Rawalpindi. He was sent on observer training to Fitzsimmons General Hospital at Denver in Colorado state of USA in 1965 but due to the Indo-Pak war in September 1965, he opted to come back home to take care of the sick and wounded. Brigadier ® M. ALimuddin, has many publications to his credit and was a highly dedicated professional and a philanthropist. He was decorated with Tamgha – e – Imtiaz (military) and was awarded the Ramazan Ali Syed Gold Medal for his dedicated services and lifetime achievement in the filed of ophthalmology.

After his retirement, he established his own private clinic RAZA EYE CLINIC and worked there till the last days of his life. Brigadier ® M. Alimuddin was a tireless worker and used to run his clinic from morning to evening relentlessly. He was ebullient and punctilious in his duties but at the same time was very humble towards his poor patients on gratis basis. He was a pious and devoted Muslim having performed HAJ and Umra numerous times and was a regular contributor to many charities in Pakistan. He was active in the construction of the Mutton Market Mosque and Jamia Islamia on Kashmir road in Rawalpindi, during the early days of Pakistan. He had so much will power and determination that during the last days of his life at the age of 85 years he used to attend to his clinic daily and saw his last patient on October 10, 2001, before he fell ill and was admitted in the hospital for cardiac problems. He breathed his last on the morning of December 28, 2001, at PNS Shifa Hospital, Karachi. His funeral was attended by a large number of people at Sultan Mosque in the Defence Housing Authority, Karachi and his mortal remains were then transported to Rawalpindi the same day to his residence in Rawalpindi where he lived most of his life.

On December 29, 2001, he was laid to rest in the Army Graveyard in Rawalpindi amongst a throng of mourners, friends, relatives and well wishers who came to pay him their last respects.

In loss of Brigadier ® M. Alimuddin, the Rawalpindi city lost a true son of soil, an eminent ophthalmologist and above all a humble human being whose absence will be felt by generations to come and mourned by his family and well wishers for a long time.