Sania Nishtar: Acting with intent

Biography

Sania Nishtar is a Pakistani physician. She graduated from Khyber Medical University in 1986, did her PhD at King’s College, London, and is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. She is the founder and president of Heartfile, a policy think tank in Islamabad. Nishtar served as a minister in the Pakistan government in 2013 and was its nominee for director general of the World Health Organization in 2017, making the final shortlist of three. She currently co-chairs WHO’s independent high level global commission on non-communicable diseases, as well as the World Economic Forum’s global future council on health and healthcare and the US National Academy of Sciences’ global study on healthcare quality.