Pakistan envoy hails diaspora as top urologist receives Tamgha-i-Imtiaz

The high commissioner, in a statement, said that a prime reflection of the diaspora’s dedication is the leading British-Pakistani consultant urologist Professor Dr. Muhammad Shabi Ahmed, who was recently conferred Pakistan’s prestigious national award Tamgha-i-Imtiaz by President Asif Ali Zardari.

He said that British Pakistanis continued to make significant contributions across business, education, medicine, law, technology, and public service, creating critical employment and contributing billions of pounds to the British economy.

Expressing his gratitude for the award, Dr. Ahmed said that receiving the Tamgha-i-Imtiaz from the country of his birth was a matter of pride for him, as it recognizes both his humanitarian healthcare efforts for disadvantaged communities and his ongoing work to strengthen the health sectors of both Pakistan and the United Kingdom.

Dr. Ahmed, a Birmingham-based consultant and Professor of Urology, is widely credited as one of the pioneers of a minimally invasive kidney stone removal procedure in the UK.

The advanced technique uses a thin telescopic nephroscope inserted through a tiny one-centimeter incision, allowing surgeons to fragment and extract stones with lasers or pneumatic energy while reducing patient hospital stays from five days down to just twenty-four hours.

Pakistan envoy hails diaspora contributions as top urologist receives Tamgha-i-ImtiazA graduate of Dow Medical College who completed higher surgical training in Newcastle, Dr. Ahmed achieved a historical milestone by becoming the first Pakistani graduate elected to the British Association of Urological Surgeons Council in its eighty-year history, where he served as Trustee and Vice President.

He also holds academic positions as a Visiting and Honorary Professor at both Dow University of Health Sciences and the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation, while serving as a Founder Member of the Association of Pakistani Physicians in the UK and an examiner for postgraduate medical degrees.

Beyond surgical innovation and academia, Dr. Ahmed has devoted decades to philanthropic healthcare initiatives and civil rights advocacy. He serves as a UK trustee for major organizations like SIUT and the Indus Health Network, helped establish urology services at a charitable hospital in Muzaffarabad in 2018, and regularly conducts free medical camps across rural Sindh, southern Punjab, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, he made headlines across international media as the first UK doctor to publicly address personal protective equipment shortages affecting ethnic minority medical staff and to advocate against the disproportionate regulatory treatment of minority physicians.