April 19 2026

A distinguished graduate of Khyber Medical College, Peshawar, Pakistan, Dr. Muhammad Rafiq brings over thirty-six years of exemplary service and leadership in the health sector. He began his professional career in the Department of Health Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, at a Basic Health Unit and steadily rose through District and Divisional Health positions, ultimately serving as Head of the Health Sector Research and Reforms Unit. He also served the United Nations for eighteen years in senior leadership positions at both national and international levels. Throughout this extensive career, he successfully designed and implemented numerous initiatives in primary health care, nutrition, immunization, pre-service and in-service training, and comprehensive health sector reforms.In parallel with his administrative and reforms-oriented roles, Dr. Rafiq made valuable contributions to medical education. He served as a faculty member at Saidu Medical College, Swat, where he helped shape future generations of healthcare professionals.

During his sixteen years with the Department of Health, Dr. Rafiq earned three prestigious merit-based international scholarships. These included a Leadership Programme in the United States, a Master’s degree in Public Health from the United Kingdom, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Human Nutrition Sciences from Wageningen University in the Netherlands. He represented the province at numerous national and international conferences and, in recognition of his outstanding professional contributions, was twice nominated by the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for the Pride of Performance Award.

April 19 2026

Dr. Zulfiqar A. Bhutta is the Robert Harding Inaugural Chair in Global Child Health at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Co-Director of the SickKids Centre for Global Child Health, and also holds the position of Distinguished University Professor and Founding Director of the Institute for Global Health and Development at the Aga Khan University, unique joint appointments. He is the Distinguished Senior Fellow in Climate Change, Food Systems and Child and Adolescent Nutrition at the at the Lawson Centre, University of Toronto and holds adjunct professorships at several leading Universities globally including the Schools of Public Health at Johns Hopkins (Baltimore), George Washington University (DC), Boston University School of Public Health, Karolinksa Institute (Sweden) as well as the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. He is a designated Distinguished National Professor of the Government of Pakistan and was a member of the Independent Expert Review Group (iERG) appointed by the UN Secretary General for monitoring global progress in maternal and child health MDGs (2011-2015). He represented the global academic and research organizations on the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (Gavi) Board and serves on the Global Vaccine Equity Reference Group (ERG). Dr. Bhutta has served as the co-Chair of Knowledge and Science committee of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH) and a member of the Independent Expert Group producing the Global Nutrition Reports since its inception in 2014 to 2021. Dr Bhutta was a member of the WHO Strategic Advisory Committee for Vaccines (SAGE) from 2010-15 and several senior level Board and Advisory positions in international UN bodies and development agencies.

Professor Bhutta was educated at the University of Peshawar (MBBS) and obtained his PhD from the Karolinska Institute, Sweden. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh & London), the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (London), American Academy of Pediatrics and the Pakistan Academy of Sciences. Dr. Bhutta has served as a member of the Global Advisory Committee for Health Research for the World Health Organization, the Board of Child & Health and Nutrition Initiative of Global Forum for Health Research. As a former President of the International Pediatric Association (IPA), he has been a leading voice for health professionals supporting integrated maternal, newborn and child health globally.

He has published 13 books, over 150 book chapters, and over 1450 indexed publications to date, including > 250 in the world’s leading journal Lancet alone. He is one of the most highly cited academics in global health (H index 243, i10 index 1240, >425,000 citations) and has been ranked among the top 1% of Highly Cited Researchers globally by the Web of Science consecutively since 2013. He has received several awards over the years, including election to the National Academy of Medicine USA, the Royal Society of London and the International Science Council. He was awarded the Roux Prize 2021 for his work on evidence-based public health impact and is the recipient of the 2022 John Dirks Canada Gairdner Global Health award. He was also awarded the Suskind Lifetime Achievement Award in International Nutrition by the American Society for Nutrition in 2022, the prestigious 2023 Henry Friesen prize for International Health and the Rosen Von Rosenstein Award for Child Health by Swedish Academy of Sciences in 2024. Dr Bhutta was also awarded one of Pakistan’s highest civil awards, the Sitara-i-Imtiaz in 2023 and appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2024. Most recently he was awarded the Virchow Science Prize in 2025Dr. Bhutta’s research interests include newborn and child survival, maternal and child undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies, especially covering the first thousand days. He leads large research groups based in Canada, Pakistan & Central Asia with a special interest in research synthesis, scaling up evidence-based interventions in community settings and implementation research in fragile health systems. His work with community health workers and outreach services has influenced integrated maternal and newborn outreach programs for marginalized populations all over the world. His group’s work with the WHO and PMNCH in developing consensus based essential interventions for women, children and adolescents is the dominant set of agreed interventions guiding global policy. Presently Professor Bhutta is leading three global academic consortia; one working on integrated investments to improve child and adolescent health and nutrition across the sustainable development goals, an academic working group on addressing women and children’s health in humanitarian and conflict settings and a multi-disciplinary work to help find strategies to address the challenges of climate change and health for women and children in populations at-risk in Conflict and Humanitarian settings in South Asia & East Africa

April 19 2026

Dr Suleman Daud Khan, a proud graduate of Khyber Medical College, Peshawar, joins the Board of Governors at the Khyber Institute of Child Health (KICH) bringing a wealth of experience and expertise as a Paediatrician in the United Kingdom for over 40 years. He brings specialist skills in Developmental Paediatrics, Child Public Health and International Child Health. While based in Scotland, he has stayed in touch with Child Health in KP and in Pakistan, contributing significantly to teaching, training and research while providing clinical leadership at Akbar Kare Institute, a prominent charitable children’s Rehabilitation Centre in Peshawar as Advisor and Director. He is a life member of the Pakistan Paediatric Association, representing it internationally in the Subgroup on Childhood Disabilities in the International Paediatric Association. He has worked with UNICEF Pakistan as Focal Point for Child Health in its headquarters in Islamabad and as Health and Nutrition Officer in Peshawar. He has published on Asthma in children, Neonatal Tetanus, and presented various papers and workshops on neurodisability, childhood development and its disorders. His interests lie in Service Development, Clinical Governance, Care Pathways in Developmental Disorders, Standards of care in Developmental Disorders, Early Childhood Development, and Integrating care of children with disabilities across agencies and disciplines.