- Health remains responsibility of state expanding Public Private Partnership is the way forward only
Interview with Prof. S. Zafar Zaidi, FRCS, FEBU, MHPE, Chief Executive Officer The Indus Hospital and Health Network & Dean Indus University of Health Sciences
PAGE: Tell me something about yourself, please:
S. Zafar Zaidi: I am a graduate of Dow Medical College. I got involved in voluntary work during my college years and was one of the people responsible for building the Accident and Emergency of Civil Hospital Karachi back in 1987. Then I went to the UK for training and became a Surgeon, Pediatric Urologist. Returning to Pakistan after a decade, I reconnected with my colleagues and was Co-Founder of Indus Hospital in 2007. I was also the first Pediatric Urologist in Pakistan.
For the first 10 years I served as the Medical Director of Indus Hospital, which went from strength to strength. It was then decided to expand our efforts across Pakistan and I took on the charge of project lead and laid foundation of 10 more hospitals across Pakistan, many as Public Private Partnerships with provincial governments. By this time Indus had become a Health Network and our focus moved to Primary Care resulting in opening Primary Care Clinics all over Pakistan.
I was given the task to build The Indus University of Health Sciences and took the additional charge of Dean Indus Hospital. This process is ongoing and University building is due completion in June 2026.
In 2022, I took over as Chief Executive Officer of Indus Hospital and Health Network and am serving in that capacity along with my duties as Dean.
I am married with 2 adult sons, elder is a data scientist in London and younger is a dentist in Karachi while my lovely wife is a teacher in Karachi. Our daughter in law is a doctor training to be a pediatrician.
PAGE: Could you tell us about the achievements of the Indus Hospital during 2025?
S. Zafar Zaidi: Indus Hospital and Health Network has been providing quality care absolutely free of cost to all those coming to it. Currently we treat 500,000 patients every month across our Network. Indus is built on 3 pillars, Service, Education and Research. In 2025 our services have increased significantly and Indus has expanded in Baluchistan, an area in need of serious help and effort. Besides Gwadar and Quetta, Indus has opened a hospital in Dera Bugti and one in Sui in partnership with Balochistan Government. 2025 has also seen major expansion in educational sector where along with the 4 colleges (nursing, physiotherapy, medical technology and public health) we are now running +50 courses for health care individuals. Postgraduate training has now been started in Lahore and Muzaffargarh while 28 specialties in postgraduate medicine are being taught at Karachi for last many years.
One of the major impactful activities in 2025 has been a very strong push towards research. With an all-digital system and with over 14 million health records in our data base, Indus is working towards contextual research rooted in problems faced by Pakistan in health and health system. For this, state-of-the-art, data centers are being developed along with AI interfacing. Similarly, a Biorepository is also being developed. Indus is making major inroads in Genetics and Genomics and is involved in collaboration in research with many world class universities.
PAGE: How do you see 2026 in terms of medical facilities to the underprivileged?
S. Zafar Zaidi: Without a doubt, Health remains the responsibility of the state. Having said that, expanding Private Public Partnership is the only way forward as it brings the might of the government with the expertise of public sector. This strategy will help in reaching the unreached while also functionalizing the nonfunctional public sector health facilities. However, this should not be at the cost of charges to poor patients. There is a need to strengthen Family Medicine clinics all over the country where prevention is taught along with treatment providing care close to home and taking away the load from tertiary care hospitals. Indus will continue to expand further its current 100+ primary care clinics across the country so that quality care is available to the underprivileged. Similarly, with the expansion of Karachi Indus Hospital from 300 to 1300 beds, we will be able to serve as many patients along with offering further specialties. In Lahore Indus Hospital will be opening further 200 beds in its 600 bed hospital.
PAGE: Could you tell us about the funding during 2025 and what do you expect in 2026?
S. Zafar Zaidi: During 2025 Indus was supported by generous Pakistanis both in the country and spread across the world with their zakat and donations. Sind Government also was a major contributor. As we move into our new building, the largest private free of cost hospital in Pakistan, we will need more funds to help patients as their numbers are increasing exponentially and we are also increasing the number of services we provide with an attempt to cover every expect of health need with quality care. For this we will increase our efforts further in fund generation both locally and internationally. At the same time, there is an effort to create an endowment that will pay for operational expenses. This of course is a slow and steady process.
PAGE: What should be the policies of the incumbent government for the healthcare sector?
S. Zafar Zaidi: Health is now a devolved subject and each government will have to put extra effort and funding into health for the benefit of its population. This should be focused at improving care, system-based processes, avoiding wastages and dysfunction and disease prevention. Emphasis should be on very strong network of Primary Care and on developing skilled human resources. Large funds spent on expensive machinery is good for optics, but benefits few. While ensuring the underprivileged and the masses are protected from diseases and can be treated effectively and with dignity for the most common ailments will have a much greater benefit.