ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Federal government has appointed Pakistan’s internationally acclaimed global health expert Dr. Sania Nishtar as the Chairperson Benazir Income Support Program (BISP).
Dr. Sania Nishtar is a well-respected apolitical professional, civil society leader and the former Cabinet minister. She is also a widely published scholar in the field of public healthcare systems and reform.
Currently, she co-chairs Wealth Health Organization’s (WHO) High-Level Commission on Non-communicable diseases along with the president of Uruguay, Finland and Sri-Lanka.
Sania Nishtar also chairs the US National Academy of Sciences initiative on the Quality of Healthcare in low and middle-income countries and also chairs the United Nations International Institute for Global Health’s Advisory Committee. She is a member of the International Advisory Board on Global Health of the Federal Government of Germany and the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the future of healthcare.
Dr. Sania Nishtar is the Founder and President of the NGO Heartfile in Pakistan and the founder of Heartfile Health Financing for which she received the global innovation award.
Previously, she has served as a Caretaker Federal Minister in the Interim government of 2013. In 2017, she was Pakistan’s nominee for director general of the WHO and was in the final shortlist of three.
Earlier, she was also Founding Chair of the UN Secretary General’s Independent Accountability Panel for Women’s and Children’s health and Chaired WHO’s Commission on Ending childhood Obesity.
Dr. Sania Nishtar has received many international awards for her work and is widely published. She graduated from Khyber Medical University as the best graduate in 1986, with 16 gold medals setting a college record which remains unbroken. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and took a Ph.D. at Kings College London.
The Finance Minister Asad Umer expressed complete confidence in Dr. Sania Nishtar’s credentials and her ability to transform BISP into a modern, dynamic and impartial social protection organization capable of eliminating dependency and permanently lifting people out of poverty.
