The Pakistani
Minister (2k+ posts)
Dr.Sania Nishtar (Urdu: ثانیہ نشتر; February 16, 1963; SI, FRCP), is a Pakistani, Former Federal Minister of Education & Training, Science and Technology, Information Technology [SUP][1][/SUP] and Health, author,[SUP][2][/SUP] health science writer,[SUP][3][/SUP] science administrator, peace builder,[SUP][4][/SUP] key health policy voice, prominent Pakistani woman,[SUP][5][/SUP] member of advisory groups and boards, Founder and President of NGO think tank Heartfile,[SUP][6][/SUP] Heartfile Health Financing and Pakistan Health Policy Forum.
Biography
She holds a Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians and a Ph.D from King's College London, and a medical degree (MBBS) from Khyber Medical College.[SUP][7][/SUP] In April 2013, Nishtar was sworn in as Pakistan's Caretaker Federal Minister for Science and Technology, Information Technology, and Education and Training.[SUP][8][/SUP] Her term in the Pakistan Federal Office ended on June 5, 2013, upon which she left five handover notes for her successor Federal Ministers which are available online.[SUP][9][/SUP]
In 1999 Nishtar left a lucrative career as Pakistan’s first woman cardiologist to establish the NGO think-tank, Heartfile, which today is a health policy voice and catalyst for health reform in Pakistan.[SUP][10][/SUP] Nishtar is also the founder of Pakistan’s Health Policy Forum and Heartfile Health Financing, a Heartfile program to protect people against health impoverishment.[SUP][11][/SUP][SUP][12][/SUP]
Nishtar 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 on Well-being and Mental Health, and the Ministerial Leadership Initiative for Global Health.[SUP][13][/SUP][SUP][14][/SUP][SUP][15][/SUP][SUP][16][/SUP] Nishtar is also the chair of the Aman ki Asha health committee (a bilateral peace effort between Pakistan and India) and is chair of GAVI’s Evaluation Advisory Committee.[SUP][17][/SUP][SUP][18][/SUP]
Nishtar is 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 non-communicable diseases.[SUP][19][/SUP][SUP][20][/SUP] She signed three MoUs with Pakistan’s Ministry of Health, committing her time pro bono to write these documents.[SUP][21][/SUP] Nishtar's book Choked Pipes, an analysis of Pakistan’s health systems, became the blue print for the country’s health policy.[SUP][citation needed][/SUP]
Nishtar is the author of 6 books, more than 100 peer review articles and around the same number of op-eds. Her latest, Choked Pipes, was published by Oxford University Press in 2010.[SUP][22][/SUP][SUP][23][/SUP]
Awards
Nishtar is the recipient of Pakistan’s Sitara e-Imtiaz, a presidential award, the European Societies Population Science Award, and the First Global Innovation Award by the Rockefeller Foundation.[SUP][24][/SUP][SUP][25][/SUP]
