She is the brain behind the Ehsaas programme of the Government of Pakistan.
A Profile of Dr Sania Nishtar. She is Special Assistant to the Prime Minister of Pakistan on Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection. She holds charge of a Federal Minister in Pakistani government. Born on February 16, 1963, Dr. Sania is approximately 58 years old Pakistani senator who is also Chairperson of Benazir Income Support Programme.
Dr. Nishtar is medical doctor by profession and completed her medical education from Khyber Medical College. She was her class topper in 1986. Moreover, she completed her residency in Khyber Teaching Hospital. She served in Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) from 1994 and worked with the institute until 2007.
In 1998, Nishtar founded Heartfile, a health policy think tank in Islamabad. In 2007, Nishtar founded Heartfile Health Financing, a program to protect poor patients from medical impoverishment.
Dr. Sania Nishtar is the wife of Mr. Ghalib Nishtar, the grandson of Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar. Her first political appointment was made by Prime Minister Imran Khan as Chairperson BISP. Later, she was appointed as Special Assistant on Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Division. She became a Senator in 2021 becoming one of the most high profile figures of Pakistani government.
Career of Dr. Sania Nishtar
She claims on her CV: “Served as Federal minister in the 2013 Pakistan Caretaker government; undertook the widely-acclaimed accountability approach to working with the government, while in office through publication of the ‘Handover Papers’; member of national commissions, restructuring committees and judicial commissions tasked with complex problem solving; chair of task forces with responsibility to write strategies and reform plans; member of public sector boards and governance bodies of regulatory agencies; 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.”
Dr. Nishtar is the Chair of the WHO high level Commission on NCDs. Co-chair of the U.S National Academy of Sciences Global Study on the Quality of Healthcare and the Chairs the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Health. Member of Federal Government of Germany’s International Advisory Board on Global Health charged with the role of establishing a new global health strategy.
A Profile of Dr. Sania Nishtar
