Dr. Sania Nishtar appointed as a Federal Minister of the Government of Pakistan. Her portfolios are Science and Technology, Information Technology, Professional Education and Training.
Sania Nishtar graduated from Khyber Medical College, Peshawar in 1986 as the best graduate with 16 gold medals, a college record, which remains unbroken to date. In 1999 she left a lucrative career as Pakistan’s first woman cardiologist to establish the NGO, Heartfile which today is the most powerful health policy voice and catalyst for health reform in Pakistan and is recognized as a model for replication in other developing countries. She also founded Pakistan’s Health Policy Forum and Heartfile Financing, a program to protect people against health impoverishment.
At International level, she is a member of many Expert Working Groups and Task Forces of the World Health Organisation, a member of the board of the International Union for Health Promotion, the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council, the Ministerial Leadership Initiative for Global Health, the Clinton Global Initiative and is Chair of GAVI’s Evaluation Advisory Com-mittee. She has previously led many global initiatives and is a regular plenary speaker, chair or moderator at global health meetings and a part of organizing committees.
Sania Nishtar is a key health policy voice in Pakistan, the author of Pakistan’s first health
reform plan, Pakistan’s first compendium of health statistics, and the country’s first national public health plan for NCDs. She has the unique honour of signing three MoUs with Pakistan’s Ministry of Health committing her time pro bono to write these documents. One of her books, an analysis of Pakistan’s health systems became the blue print for the country’s health policy. She is a member of many boards, advisory groups and task forces and a voice to catalyze change at the broader governance level in Pakistan.