The globally respected figure of Aziz Memon has been entrusted with yet other key responsibility to head the newly launched World Health Organization (WHO) Pakistan Council for partnership with public and private sectors.
The council was launched jointly by Dr Hanan Balkhy, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, Larry Lunsford, President-Elect, Rotary International, Dr Dapeng Luo, WHO Representative in Pakistan, and Aziz Memon himself in Karachi on July 29.
The presence of such high-profile personalities reflected the significance attached to the Council, at the highest levels of WHO and of the global Rotary movement, as a pioneering model of national leadership for health. The launch marked its formal establishment and the beginning of their collective work, anchored in Pakistan's own national health priorities and guided by sound governance and the standards that WHO brings as a partner.
“Let me tell you something I have learned over a lifetime. I have spent decades in business, building, competing, succeeding, and failing, and learning. But I want to speak to you about a different ledger, the one I have kept through Rotary for most of my life. Over these decades, I have given what I could: my money, yes, but more than that, my time, my voice, and my name. To the fight against polio, and well beyond it: to the health of mothers and children, to clean water, to education, and to communities in need across this country,” Aziz Memon remarked in his speech on the occasion.
“And let me tell you plainly what that ledger shows. Nothing I have built in business has returned to me what this work has. I have watched children walk who would not have walked. I have seen mothers weep with relief at a doorstep. I have seen what a well, a school, or a clinic does to a village. This is the best investment of my life, and I say that as a businessman who knows his numbers,” he added.
“These years also taught me what partnership really means. I have watched the WHO teams at work not only against polio, where this country has come back from thousands of cases a year to a handful, but in flood-hit districts, in nutrition wards, in immunization drives, and in the quiet work of building health systems that last,” Aziz Memon, who is also the National Chair of Pakistan PolioPlus Committee, acknowledged.
“This Council will stand on that same breadth. Polio may be our proudest fight, but our canvas is the whole of health: safe motherhood, well-fed children, protected communities, and hospitals and clinics this nation can rely on. That is the spirit I bring to this chair,” he declared.
“So, when Dr Luo and Mohamed came to Karachi last year with an idea, they thought they would need to convince me. They did not. The idea was right, and the moment was right: a platform where Pakistan's business leadership takes its rightful place in the health of its own people, with the WHO as our trusted partner. I said yes before they finished,” Aziz Memon disclosed.
“And then I began to call you. My friends, my peers, even my competitors. Here is what moved me most: not one of you asked what you would get. You asked what was needed. Within days, you answered. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the leadership Pakistan is capable of. Look at who sits in this room: leaders from industry, banking, pharmaceuticals, textiles, technology, and philanthropy, from every corner of this economy. Each of you built something from conviction and discipline. This Council asks you to build with those same tools, one more time, for something no balance sheet can hold,” he concluded.
