Doctor Donya Aziz is an MBBS doctor who has stood tall by endeavoring to venture into active politics soon after completing her professional education. She was born to Tariq Aziz – his father who she says with a smile is neither the Principal Secretary to the President, nor the person who used to host the popular show “Neelaaam Ghar” on PTV; rather his father has been the Corporate Vice President for “Rockwell” which is a leading defence production firm having its operations spread across Middle East and Africa.
Early Life and Education:
Donya is the eldest of her twin brothers who are seven years younger to her. She was born in Lahore on the 3rd of November 1975; a ‘Scorpion’ who finds this American Indian Quotation really inspiring: “We have not inherited this earth from our parents, we are borrowing it from our children.”
Donya had her early schooling from Riyadh as her father was placed in Saudia Arabia until she reached 9th Grade. She then joined International School Islamabad when they moved to Islamabad. She eventually joined “Rawalpindi Medical College” which churned her out as a professional medical doctor in 1999. She later moved to U.C.L.A and did her research in ‘Interventional Radiology’; she managed to develop protocols which are now being used in the field of medicine. Her stay abroad for research really proved fruitful.
She feels extremely lucky to have been blessed with competent teachers. She wishes solace for Mr Derose’s soul who died of cancer and had taught real good history to her. She embraced immense love from all her teachers as she firmly believes that they adored her from the bottom of their hearts and souls. She had great respect and admiration for Dr Ali Mir who taught her in MBBS and signified the importance of public health, and for Dr Musaddiq Khan, current principal of Rawalpindi Medical College, who was one of her professors of Surgery.
Politics and Donya:
Upon her return to Pakistan in 2002, Donya landed into the political arena. She had no political background at all, but her strong commitment to serve the masses made her to successfully qualify the third interview for the women reserve seat with Nilofar Bakhtiar.
She became the “Parliamentary Secretary for Ministry of Population Welfare”, and this really helped as she was herself an MBBS doctor. She really enjoyed her time in the ministry and feels that she really contributed a lot to the Reproductive Health Issues. She feels a great deal of gratitude for his kind Minister Chaudry Shabaz Hussain who happens to hail from Jehlum. She praises the charismatic leadership of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, and finds Benazir even more daring as she was incredibly young when she became the first female Prime Minister, but she never gave in. On the international fornt, she feels that Barack Obama has something really great to offer.
A Patriot at heart:
Donya believes that as a nation we need to put in a lot of hard work. She believes that she is too patriotic to say that the picture of Pakistan 20 years down the line is really bleak. So she holds on to optimism and finds innumerable rays of hope. She opines that Pakistan has immense potential in the form of a diverse human and natural resource which needs to be managed well.
Donya wants every Pakistani to have a nationalistic vision rather than claiming to be the well wishers of a particular province or city. She finds the biggest problem being the lack of hard work amongst the public at large and a general tendency among people to criticize and bombard others with ironic sarcasm.
The real Donya:
Donya is a kindred spirit deep down who has interest in fiction and regards book reading as something fruitful. She regularly works out as she believes in physical fitness . Donya had been a great player of field hockey throughout her youth, and loves watching soccer and one day internationals for cricket. She is multi-lingual and has developed proficiencies in French, English and Urdu.
Donya loves cats. She has a lovely Persian one, and she has a dog outside as well but she is not really very fond of dogs.
She idealizes Abdul Sattar Edhi and praises him for the contributions he has made over the years. Donya believes that Zakat is the best charity and that we all must look around and help those in despair. Donya lives by the notion that the youth have no shortfall, they are the best generation available but one thing which really takes them down is ‘despondency’. Donya urges the youth to keep the spirits high and continue serving Pakistan with zest and zeal, and with everything else they have. (Profile by: Talha Abbasi)
