A RENOWNED plastic surgeon who has helped women mutilated in acid attacks is to be honoured at an event in Scotland.

Dr Mohammad Jawad, who works in London and Clydebank, is to receive the inaugural award from The Scottish Circle, a multi-national group in Glasgow that campaigns to improve the lives of women.

Dr Jawad became famous when he helped reconstruct the face of model Katie Piper, who was mutilated in an acid attack by a former boyfriend. This led to him working with victims around the world.

He said he was gratified by the award, which will be presented to him at a lunch in Glasgow on Sunday, and believed it would help continue to raise awareness about acid attacks.

In 2009, Dr Jawad was featured in the documentary My Beautiful Face, which examined his work on Katie Piper, and last year, Saving Face, a documentary about his work, won an Oscar.

He said yesterday that he had been shocked by the extent of acid attacks, which he said were seen in around 22 countries around the world.

"I had no idea of the extent of the problem. I go to Pakistan every three to four months because I have family there and even in conversation it never came up. But after Katie, I wanted to do more. I realised that if I had more patients, I could use my skills I learned to improve the outcomes for women."

Dr Jawad learned his plastic surgery skills partly in Scotland, where he trained at Edinburgh University. He was also a senior registrar and consultant at St John's Hospital in Lothian between 2001 and 2003 and still does regular plastic surgery work at the Golden Jubilee Hospital in Clydebank, although not on acid attack victims.

Speaking ahead of the award, he said there was much more that could be done to help acid attack victims, although progress had been made. He said the law had been changed in Pakistan to make life sentences mandatory for such attacks, and big fines had also been introduced.

"I would be happy if we could reduce incidents by 50 per cent in five years' time – everything is achievable," he said. "At least we can try. The law is number one – the men who do this and get away with it will no longer get away with it. Society will also rise up to their responsibilities to women and protect them."

Farah Kushi, chair of The Scottish Circle, said Dr Jawad's work had made a huge difference to the lives of women in Pakistan. The Circle is based on an idea by Annie Lennox, who set up the first circle in London with Oxfam. The Glasgow group is made up of nine influential women who use their networks and contacts to help improve the lives of women. It has already raised £100,000 to support Oxfam projects.

"I'm delighted Dr Jawad is the first recipient of the Scottish Circle award," said Ms Kushi. "His work in Pakistan has made such a huge difference to the lives of affected women there and helped raise awareness of the issue at home and abroad."

At the event on Sunday, Dr Jawad will be joined by around 80 guests who will raise money for acid attack victims and other projects.

Dr Jawad said he saw his work as a chance to give something back to Pakistan, which had provided him with a free education, although he admitted he had been criticised.

"I got a lot of criticism in Pakistan," he said. "People said to me 'why do you have to bring out the dirty laundry?' If we want to learn to live in a civilised world, things have to change – men have to behave."