Born in Lahore in 1962 to a family of modest means, Prof. Dr. Khalid Masood Gondal entered King Edward Medical College in 1981 — a place he would never quite leave. Forty years on, he has chaired its Surgery department, served as its Vice Chancellor, and now leads Fatima Jinnah Medical University while presiding over the College of Physicians & Surgeons Pakistan for an unprecedented second term.
He completed his MBBS at King Edward Medical College in 1986 and earned the Fellowship of the College of Physicians & Surgeons Pakistan (FCPS) in General Surgery in 1993. Subsequent fellowships from the Royal College of Surgeons of Glasgow (FRCS), the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (FRCP), the American College of Surgeons (FACS), and the colleges of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and the International College of Surgeons followed — a roster of seven international fellowships that few Pakistani surgeons of his generation can match.
His clinical practice has been anchored at Mayo Hospital and the King Edward Medical University teaching service, where he rose to Professor and Chairman of the Department of Surgery. There, beyond the daily theatre lists, he built a reputation as the kind of teacher who would stay back after rounds to walk a junior through a difficult anastomosis — and who would, just as readily, fail an unprepared candidate on examination day.
I am a Pakistani — a local product. Whatever I have learned, I have learned here, and whatever I owe, I owe here.
In June 2018 he was appointed the Vice Chancellor of King Edward Medical University by the Governor of Punjab — a homecoming, in a sense, for the boy who had once walked through its colonnades in awe. He served until 2022, when he was named the first regular Vice Chancellor of Fatima Jinnah Medical University, a post he holds today.
His association with the College of Physicians & Surgeons Pakistan dates back to 2007, when he was elected Councillor and appointed Regional Director for Lahore — roles he has held continuously since. He was elevated to Vice President in 2011, Senior Vice President in 2015, and elected President in 2021. In 2024 he was returned for a second presidential term — a distinction unique in the institution's recent history.
Pakistan recognised this body of work with the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz in 2013 and the Pride of Performance in 2021. Lifetime achievement awards followed from Khyber Medical University, the Society of Surgeons of Pakistan, the Postgraduate Medical Institute, and — most recently — the Old Ravian Union of Government College University Lahore in 2025.
Notes from a private life
A man of unembarrassed plainness.
Away from the operating theatre and the council chamber, he is a quietly religious man with a particular regard for his earliest mentor, Maulana Muhammad Arif Sahab, and for his clinical teachers Prof. Dr. Nawaz and Prof. Zafarullah Chaudhry. He prefers Vancouver and Niagara when he travels, bhindi and tori when he eats, and the Laal Qila restaurant in Lahore when guests visit. He speaks Urdu, Punjabi, and English — and answers most questions in fewer words than the questioner expected.
- Background
- Humble means; describes himself as a 'Pakistani / local product.'
- Faith
- Religiously inclined; credits Maulana Muhammad Arif Sahab as earliest mentor.
- Travels
- Vancouver · Niagara Falls
- Cuisine
- Bhindi · Tori (ridge gourd)
- Restaurant
- Laal Qila, Lahore
Source · KemUnited 'Behind the Curtains' interview (May 2015) — kemunited.com/2015/05/behind-curtains-with-prof-dr-khalid.html