PTI Senator Sania Nishtar tendered her resignation from the senate on Tuesday. Nishtar cited personal reasons for her resignation from the senate. Elected as a senator from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2021, Nishtar has served with a focus on social welfare initiatives and healthcare reform.
Sania Nishtar is a renowned physician, cardiologist, author, senator and activist. She closely worked on several social welfare projects initiated by the PTI government from 2018 to 2021. In 2024, she was appointed CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. She was also a part of the interim federal government in 2013 and monitored the health sector.
Earlier this year, Gavi Vaccine Alliance had picked Sania Nishtar as the CEO of the body.
In a statement, Gavi Vaccine Alliance said that its board has approved the appointment of Senator Sania Nishtar as its next chief executive officer. “I am honored by the trust the Gavi Board placed in me and look forward to working with Gavi’s talented staff and skilled Alliance partners,” Nishtar posted on X.
She also served as special assistant to the prime minister on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation, a role with the status of a federal minister in Khan’s cabinet from 2018 to 2022.
Back in 2022, Stanford University published a paper on how the world can learn from Imran Khan’s poverty alleviation Ehsaas Program implemented by the PTI government from 2018 onwards. This Ehsaas Program was led by Sania Nishtar.
Read more:Stanford University appreciates PTI’s Ehsaas program
The Ehsaas Program provides a variety of services to vulnerable Pakistanis, including cash transfers, targeted subsidies, and increased health and nutritional coverage. The Program has been successful in assisting many of the most vulnerable people in Pakistan and is considered a world-leading anti-poverty effort.
In particular, the study highlighted the importance of “good leadership, building strong institutions, effectively using data and technology, and of using an integrated, inclusive approach to anti-poverty.”