WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Region Dr Hussain A Gezairy will be on a three-day visit to Pakistan from March 23 - during which he will also receive "Hilal-e-Quaid-i-Azam" from President General Pervez Musharraf.
According to WHO sources here on Friday, the WHO director will also visit Karachi and hold meetings with the top leadership in Sindh, mainly focussed around "polio-eradication activities" in the province.
Dr Hussein Abdul Razzak Gezairy was born in Makkah in 1934 and graduated in medicine in 1957 at the Kasr El Aini Faculty of Medicine in Cairo, Egypt, where he also obtained his diploma in surgery in 1960.
He then joined the staff of the University of Riyadh following which he undertook postgraduate studies in surgery in London, obtaining the Fellowship of the Royal College of England in 1965. He was founding dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Riyadh University, in 1969.
In October 1975, Dr Gezairy became health minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, an office that he continued to hold until his assumption of duties as the WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean in October 1982.
Subsequently, the WHO Executive Board re-appointed Dr Gezairy to the same position in 1987, 1992, 1997 and lastly in 2002 for another term of five years. Dr Gezairy is a founder and promoter of medical studies in Saudi Arabia and a member of academic and medical societies in the Arab world.
Dr Gezairy was the first president of the Supreme Council of the Arab Board for Medical Specialisations.
The decorations, honorary degrees and medals conferred on him included King Abdul Aziz decoration, Grade II granted by Khalid Bin Abdul Aziz in 1975, Leopold II Medal (The Grand Ornament) granted by King of Belgium in 1975, State.
Knight Decoration, Grade II, by Sultan Haji Ahmed Shah, King of Malaysia, Independence Decoration, Grade I granted by King Hussein of Jordan in 1990, The Lebanese Health Golden Medal, Grade I in 1993 and several other medals.