Op-eds Columns

June 21st, 2021 Putting Women at the Center of Asia’s Pandemic Recovery – Sania Nishtar and Bambang Susantono

June 9th, 2021 In Pakistan we are developing a Covid-19 legacy to end poverty and drive health for all

‘People are the currency of progress’: how Pakistan is battling stunting

How cash transfers prevent lockdown tragedies

June 3rd, 2020 World Economic Forum-COVID-19 and the pursuit of financial inclusion in Pakistan

May 5th, 2020 World Economic Forum -COVID-19: Using cash payments to protect the poor in Pakistan

Logic behind the langar Published in The News International, October 15, 2019 The Langar Policy is one of several policies under the Ehsaas umbrella, in its Safety Net category. This policy is being implemented in the public-private partnership mode, as…

The Ehsaas strategy Published in The News International, September 17, 2019 The Ehsaas Strategy has been released today (pass.gov.pk/) to solicit public input, prior to its finalization. The strategy elaborates on the prime minister’s vision of a welfare state. This…

More provinces? Published in The News International, May 1, 2018 Calls to create more provinces are once again resonating across Pakistan as the elections draws closer. Beyond the election rhetoric, the objective of creating more provinces in the country should…

The e-voting challenge Published in The News International, April 13, 2018 Discussions on e-voting have re-emerged as the election draws closer and the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) gears up to present its plans about the three-tiered Internet Voting…

Corrupting health Published in The News International, April 7, 2018 Over half the world’s population is denied essential health services. This means that scores of communities cannot get the medicines they need, have no hospital to go to, are not…

The future of government Published in The News International, March 17, 2018 Governments in countries such as Pakistan – with exploding and rapidly urbanising populations – face increasing challenges to deliver ‘good government’. In the context of scarce resources and…

Nurses: our silent heroes Published in The News International, March 8, 2018 Over the last year, as the global movement for women’s equality and gender parity gained momentum, we saw a sea change around the world. Women have demanded their…

Nurses: our silent heroes Published in The News International, March 01, 2018 While they are often in the background, nurses are at the heart of every national health system. They do everything, whether it involves caring for patients, administering lifesaving…

The human capital agenda Published in The News International, February 21, 2018 As the country gears up for the 2018 general election, it is important to examine where and how human capital development features in party manifestoes. Human capital development…

Nishtar S. The NCD Cooperative. The Lancet, 2017 Nishtar S. The NCD Cooperative : a call to action. The Lancet, 2017 S0140-6736(17)32481-9

The corruption imperative Published in The News International, September 20, 2017

Road to Anti-corruption Published in The News International, October 3, 2017

Nishtar S, Gluckman P, Armstrong T. Ending childhood obesity: a time for action. Lancet 2016 Jan 22. pii: S0140-6736(16)00140-9. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)00140-9.

Nishtar S. Delivering the WHO we need. BMJ, May 19, 2017 http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2017/05/19/sania-nishtar-delivering-the-who-that-we-need/

Nishtar S. Opinion: A new deal for health. Devex May 2, 2017. https://www.devex.com/news/opinion-a-new-deal-for-health-90171

Nishtar S. Open letter to WHO DG candidates: reply from Sania Nishtar. 2017 May 20;389(10083):1978-1979. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(17)31254-0. Epub 2017 May 9.

https://medium.com/@SaniaNishtar/new-tools-needed-to-fight-ancient-disease-4b08cb79d894

https://medium.com/@SaniaNishtar/saving-women-and-girls-7d122c29f604

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(16)00140-9/abstract

http://thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(17)30026-8/fulltext

Published in The News International on April 12, 2015: It has been five years since enactment of the 18th Amendment to the constitution of Pakistan and four years since the end of the term of several committees that were given…

Peter Gluckman P, Nishtar S. Armstrong T. Ending childhood obesity: a multidimensional challenge. The Lancet 2015. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)60509-8 Accessible here

Published in The News International on January 06, 2015: The drug pricing policy is on the prime minister’s table for the final approval. Three dimensions of pricing need to be segregated: 1) Initial price setting, either of originator brands of…

Published in The News International on December 13, 2014: Plunged in the corner of an orthopaedic ward in a hospital in Pakistan, ZU, a 19-year-old labourer struggles with pain and discomfort, his leg arched over a metal frame at 45…

Published in The News International on November 19, 2014: For the last seven years, every November around 800 thought leaders from around the world convene in the United Arab Emirates for the World Economic Forum’s Summit on the Global Agenda….

Published in The News International on October 31, 2014: A special cabinet meeting has been scheduled for today (October 31) to conduct a performance review of all ministries, divisions and departments. In this context, I am offering some reflections from…

Published in The News International on August 07, 2014: Privatisation is subject to intensely polarised political discussions, which cloud important policy imperatives that need to be appreciated. Six points are being outlined in this respect. First, we must get the…

Published in The News International on July 22, 2014: Sometimes the rationale of a policy decision becomes apparent long after the actual decision itself. The imperatives created by the polio travel conditionality will help us understand why it was critical…

Nishtar S. Health in the post-2015 agenda: three considerations in moving forward. Nishtar S. East Mediterr Health J. 2014 Mar 13;20(2):71-2. Accessible here

Nishtar S and Ralston J. Can human resources for health in the context of non-communicable disease control be a lever for health system changes? Bulletin of the World Health Organization. 2013 November; 91(11):895-896. doi: 10.2471/BLT.13.118711. Accessible here

Published in The News International on November 07, 2013: The Supreme Court of Pakistan instructed the provincial authorities in April 2012 to hold local government elections “without delay”. The reason was simple. The provinces had long been delaying the legislative…

Published in The News International on November 01, 2013: Earlier last month, the Supreme Court directed the government to put in place the necessary institutional arrangements at the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, in particular hiring of the three members central to…

Bhutta ZA, Nishtar S. Health and research in Pakistan – Authors’ reply. Lancet 2013; 382(9900):1246 Accessible here

Published in The News International on August 23, 2013: Lying in a surgical unit of the Khyber Teaching Hospital in Peshawar is an elderly woman with half her abdominal wall practically eaten away by infection – the outcome of a…

Published in The News International on July 10, 2013: As I stepped down from my role as a caretaker federal minister last month I attempted to introduce two precedents through my Handover Papers – voluntary submission to accountability and a…

Published in The News International on June 21, 2013: Accountability and transparency are deeply misunderstood in our country. For decades, the two have been regarded as being synonymous with politically motivated anti-corruption efforts. Nothing could be further away from the…

Published in The News International on February 06, 2013: Pakistan’s national and human security challenges have never been so pervasive. A war along the northern borders and relentless insurgency threatens the writ of the state, pitting law-enforcement agencies against people. Vested-interest…

Published in The News International on December 29, 2012: The brutal assassination of nine grass-roots level health workers in Pakistan, who were involved in a door-to-door immunisation campaign in an attempt to secure children from the crippling disease of polio,…

Published in The News International on December 05, 2012: The bill creating a much-needed federal drug regulatory authority – Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan – was enacted into law recently. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreements have made it binding…

Attaran A, Barry D, Basheer S, Bate R, Benton D, Chauvin J, Garrett L, Kickbusch I, Kohler JC, Midha K, Newton PN, Nishtar S, Orhii P, McKee M. How to achieve international action on falsified and substandard medicines. BMJ. 2012…

Published in The News International on November 05, 2012: The concept of development, through which governments view social policy in environments where capitalism is the mode of social organisation, may be up for a major rethink, globally. This year, policy…

Published in The News International on August 15, 2012: Great trepidations shadow Independence Day. With the country’s increasing isolation in the arena of international politics, poor state governance, and a polarised society, Pakistan survives today primarily on the resilience of…

Published in The News International on March 06, 2012: Currently, there is just one drug quality testing laboratory in each province but most are either inoperative or lack infrastructure, equipment, or qualified competent and experienced staff. It is critical that…

Pakistan’s deadly cocktail of substandard drugs. The Lancet – 5 March 2012. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(12)60277-3 Download Attached file # 1

Published in The News International on March 05, 2012: In 1937, more than a hundred people died in the United States as a result of using a drug formulated with a toxic solvent in what came to be known as…

Published in The News International on November 23, 2011: At the recent meeting of heads of Commonwealth states, Australia put polio squarely on the table with a 54 million dollar promise. This adds to the existing pledges towards the disease…

Published in The News International on September 03, 2011: Pakistan’s Ministry of Health was abolished on the 30th of June and a number of federal health responsibilities were placed under the jurisdiction of seven other government ministries/divisions. The dynamics of…

Published in The News International on August 16, 2011: In this rapidly changing globalized and inter-connected world, some recent events are compelling us to redefine existing norms and practices. Burgeoning tensions earlier in the Middle East highlighted the need to…

Published in The News International on July 23, 2011: On June 28, a notification of the Government of Pakistan articulated a plan for completing the process of devolving many subjects, including health, as part of the final stages of implementing…

Published in The News International on June 25, 2011: The establishment of a drug regulatory authority is once again on the policy agenda, this time round as part of implementation of the 18th Amendment-relevant devolution of health. In principle this…

Published in The News International on May 28, 2011: The events of May 2nd and 21st have left the nation embarrassed and demoralized. The challenges arising as a result thereof may compound Pakistan’s existing problems. Many find it difficult to…

Nishtar S, Mehboob AB. Pakistan prepares to abolish Ministry of Health. The Lancet May 4, 2011

Published in The News International on April 23, 2011: As one of the key instruments of governance, regulatory functions have increasingly been in the spotlight, subsequent to the 18th Constitutional Amendment. Regulation can take many forms but in the current…

Priority actions for the non-communicable disease crisis. Lancet. 2011 Apr 23;377(9775):1438-47.

Published in The News International on April 02, 2011: The Implementation Commission of the 18th Constitutional Amendment, in its recent session, has taken the final decision to devolve the Ministry of Education. The next round of deliberations will decide the…

Published in The News International on March 19, 2011: Young doctors in the largest province of the country are on strike for the 17th day running. With revolutionary fervor from the lawyers’ movement and the Middle Eastern revolutions shaping our…

Nishtar S. The Challenges of Scaling up. Lancet 2011;377:986.

Published in The News International on February 12, 2011: World Bank’s report ‘Tackling Non-communicable Diseases in South Asia’ made headlines in Pakistan, yesterday. This is an important subject and its significance should be appreciated by policymakers. The report highlights the magnitude…

Published in The News International on January 29, 2011: The government and opposition factions appear to be converging on a ten-point Agenda focused on eliminating some of the currently prevailing governance distortions in Pakistan. Articulated as a set of “Demands”…

Published in The News International on January 05, 2011: The government and opposition factions appear to be converging on a ten-point Agenda focused on eliminating some of the currently prevailing governance distortions in Pakistan. Articulated as a set of “Demands”…

Published in The News International on January 01, 2011: At the recent meeting of the Global Agenda Council of the World Economic Forum in Dubai some of the top issues in the global risk landscape and their possible mitigates were…

Published in The News International on December 25, 2010: The Implementation Commission of the 18th Constitutional Amendment is due to present its final recommendations to the Parliament for approval next week. Statements issued in the run up to that have…

Published in The News International on November 22, 2010: Pakistan Development Forum (PDF) 2010 was convened at a time of unparalleled challenges—with several macroeconomic issues, a grinding fiscal crunch, competing priorities for resource allocations, an energy crisis, ongoing war, relentless…

Published in The News International on November 06, 2010: The recent outbreak of Dengue, which is commanding widespread attention, is an important insight into several health and overarching governance issues. Before those are alluded to, a brief comment is offered…

Published in The News International on October 23, 2010: Drawing attention to the budget process during the month of October may appear a little out of step specially when there are so many other governance-related storms whipping. A closer look…

Published in The News International on October 02, 2010: In the last eight weeks, ‘coordination’ has come to be viewed as the epitome of flood relief, and the lack thereof, a major failure of stewardship agencies. The emphasis on coordination…

Published in The News International on September 22, 2010: Financial constraints, which parallel the unprecedented need for financing to rebuild and rehabilitate in the aftermath of the recent floods are calling for efforts to mobilize resources to bridge a huge…

Published in The News International on September 04, 2010: Disasters are a true litmus test of governance. Many attributes of governance interplay in disasters, before, during and after a situation. This comment flags five governance lessons, evidenced by the response…

Published in The News International on August 17, 2010: The Khyber Pakhtunkwa Child Protection and Welfare Ordinance 2010  is due to be presented to the Provincial Assembly any time now. The Ordinance is meant to be an improvement on the…

Published in The News International on July 24, 2010: Some of the statements in wake of the recent meeting of Friends of Democratic Pakistan and strategic dialogues aimed at defining areas of priority for the use of incoming bilateral assistance…

Published in The News International on July 11, 2010: July 11, World Population Day, holds special significance for Pakistan, the sixth most populous country in the world where the importance of Population as the denominator for planning and development must…

Published in The News International on July 03, 2010: There was a misplaced euphoria in some social sector circles last year over the expansionary fiscal policy evidenced in Budget 2009/10 and the increase in allocations for the social sectors indicated…

Published in The News International on June 19, 2010: This comment is a review of the health sector policy announced in the budget speech as part of which a new health insurance scheme will be launched for the poor under…

Published in The News International on June 07, 2010: Pakistan is faced with many unprecedented challenges. Ongoing acts of terrorism, the executive-judiciary confrontation, threats of environmental disasters looming with the Hunza lake bursting at its seams and a storm whipping…

Published in The News International on May 29, 2010: “In order to judge the character of a nation, look no further than its health system.” This yardstick doesn’t project a positive image of Pakistan, with respect to all the three…

Published in The News International on May 22, 2010: Ever since the enactment of major health reforms in the United States, global interest in the subject has burgeoned. For Pakistan, health reform should be an imperative for reasons that have been…

Published in The News International on May 08, 2010: Calls to create more provinces in Pakistan have intensified ever since NWFP was renamed Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. People of district Hazara are out on the streets with their demand for Hazara province. A…

Published in The News International on April 24, 2010: The 18th Amendment to the Constitution is being hailed on a two-fold premise: one, that it will proclaim and empower the Parliament as supreme; and two, that it will fundamentally redress…

Published in The News International on April 09, 2010: The 18th Amendment Bill is being widely hailed for repealing some of the distortions introduced in the Constitution in previous years under military rule and for returning the parliamentary form of…

Published in The News International on April 03, 2010: Pakistan’s prevailing situation should lend impetus to strategic thinking about a holistic vision for a National Security Policy. The imperative to do so is two-fold: one, the contemporary understanding of security…

Published in The News International on March 22, 2010: The Ministry of Health has stepped up efforts to enunciate the National Health Policy 2010 and bring the process, which commenced with the initiation of a Health Policy Task Force in…

Published in The News International on March 22, 2010: The evidence generating institutional arrangements of a state qualify to be its fourth pillar, since evidence constitutes the basis of decisions in every state domain. Within this context, the draft bill…

Nishtar S. Scaling up Financing for Health. Lancet 2010;375:983 and can be accessed at http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/88/1/09-067868/en/

Published in The News International on March 08, 2010: Although effective governance—or the lack thereof—has an impact on every aspect of our societal, social and economic lives, nowhere is its imprint more vivid than in determining the status of women…

Nishtar S. Choked Pipes — Reforming Pakistan’s Mixed Health System (invited editorial). J Pak Med Assoc 2010;60(4):252-3 and can be accessble at http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/88/1/09-067868/en/

Published in The News International on February 27, 2010: The International Crisis Group’s Report on Civil Service Reform has sparked conversations around the need and potential avenues for restructuring Pakistan’s civil service. This, however, is not the first time that…

Published in The News International on February 20, 2010: The potential standoff between government and judiciary has finally been averted. Process-related concerns notwithstanding, the saga’s culmination appears to be a product of sound technical advice, heed to provisions of the…

Published in The News International on February 13, 2010: Members of the forum of Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FoDP) have been convened for the fourth time since the announcement, which led to the creation of the forum in September 2008…

Published in The News International on February 06, 2010: The poor man is under tremendous stress as a result of numerous economic hardships including high unemployment, inflation, scarcity of essential commodities, and limited ability of the state to target welfare…

Published in The News International on January 20, 2010: Discussions around the Punjab Health Care Bill 2009 have intensified following some instances of alleged medical negligence in Lahore. The purpose of this comment is to clarify many policy and institutional…

Published in The News International on January 11, 2010: A review of 2009’s grand challenges can provide useful insights for planning 2010. Although issues were pervasive in many state sectors, their salience is being underscored in a few domains with…

Published in The News International on December 31, 2009: The National Finance Commission (NFC) will be announced by the Prime Minister in Gawadar today. Felicitations are due not only for the amicable coming to fruition of a process fraught with…

Published in The News International on December 19, 2009: In a landmark decision on December 16, the Supreme Court has ruled on the legal validity of the National Reconciliation Order (NRO) and has termed it void ab initio for being…

Published in The News International on December 12, 2009: The Balochistan package, the implementation of which the Prime Minister envisages finalizing by December 15, has been received with views on both extremes of a spectrum. The ruling stakeholders term it…

Nishtar S. Pakistan, Politics and Polio. Bull World Health Organ 2010. 10.2471/ BLT.09.066480

Published in The News International on November 28, 2009: The Special Committee on Constitutional Reform, which was constituted to frame recommendations with regard to the construct of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan, is likely to come up…

Published in The News International on November 07, 2009: The emotional turmoil, which the nation was going through over the fate of ethical standards in accountability norms and the threat of the widening gulf between justice and law appear to…

Lagomarsino G, de Ferranti D, Pablos-Mendez A, Nachuk S, Nishtar S, Wibulpolprasert S. Public stewardship of mixed health systems. Lancet 2009 Nov 7;374(9701): 1577-8

Published in The News International on October 31, 2009: Aid conditionality appears to be a subject of recent controversy—not all conditionalities are controversial though. Some—as pointed out by the writer in these columns on October 22—particularly those related to governance…

Published in The News International on October 22, 2009: The recent discussions regarding the Kerry Lugar Bill and the debate about the value of aid in general on its sidelines, brings to the fore the understanding that both sides—donors as…

Published in The News International on October 12, 2009: A number of civil society organisations have drawn attention to the need for strengthening Pakistan’s existing Freedom of Information (FOI) legislative framework on September 28 —the Right to Know Day. FOI…

Published in The News International on September 28, 2009: The meeting of Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FoDP), convened on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, concluded yesterday by signaling unprecedented support to Pakistan. This was…

Published in The News International on September 19, 2009: The Special Committee on Constitutional Reform is currently deliberating on the nature of constitutional amendments to be introduced through the 18th Amendment. Achieving balance of power should be an important outcome…

Nishtar S. Mixed Health Systems Syndrome. Bull World Health Organ 2010;88:74-75. doi: 10.2471/BLT.09.067868

Nishtar S. Amjad S. Synergizing health and population in Pakistan. J Pak Med Asoc 2009;Suppl3:S3-20

Nishtar S. Amjad S. Pakistan’s Health Population Mantra. J Pak Med Asoc 2009;Suppl3:S1-2

Published in The News International on September 16, 2009: The heartbreaking scene of 18 women succumbing to stampede whilst striving to get a bag of free sugar brings to attention the gravity of the ongoing commodity crisis.  Such crises provide…

Atun R, Dybul M, Evans T, Kim JY, Moatti JP, Nishtar S, Russell A. Venice Statement on global health initiatives and health systems. Lancet 2009; 374(9692): 783-4

Published in The News International on August 22, 2009: Reaffirming the commitment to national security can be a befitting commemoration of the country’s 62nd Independence Day. National security is defined as “the requirement to maintain the survival of the nation-state…

Published in The News International on August 15, 2009: The release of Transparency International’s National Corruption Perception Survey, 2009, which assessed citizens’ perceptions as to the level of corruption in the four provinces of Pakistan, has sparked a debate about…

Published in The News International on August 08, 2009: The fate of the devolution initiative is likely to be decided by the end of this year, regardless of the presidential sanction to the provincial draft proposal—currently in the pipeline—given that…

Published in The News International on July 25, 2009: The Petroleum Development Levy (Amendment) Ordinance, 2009, which offset the Supreme Court’s suspension of the imposition of the carbon surcharge was challenged on the basis of the Constitution’s Articles 2A, 4,…

Published in The News International on July 16, 2009: There is hardly any problem in the country, which cannot be tracked back to challenges and weaknesses at the level of governance—the crisis of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) is certainly…

Published in The News International on July 06, 2009: The health sector was marked by six policy highlights in the expansionary fiscal policy of the government in the federal budget for 2009/10. These policy dimensions center on the following: scale…

Published in The News International on June 22, 2009: The Finance Bill 2009, which gives effect to the financial proposals of the federal government for a year, is the government’s key instrument of fiscal policy and in many ways, a…

Published in The News International on June 11, 2009: The government has decided to increase spending in the development sector in the coming year as is evidenced by the expansionary fiscal policy adopted in the forthcoming budget for the year…

The Holders of Public Offices (Accountability) Act 2009, which currently exists as a Bill and is to be introduced in the National Assembly, will perhaps be one of the most vital instruments of governance in Pakistan, over the coming years;…

Published in The News International onApril 28, 2009: The donor’s conference in Tokyo and the meeting convened by the Friends of Democratic Pakistan on its sidelines concluded on April 17 with a 5.28 Billion US$ pledge in economic assistance to…

Published in The News International on April 11, 2009: The White House has recently released a White Paper on U.S. policy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, articulating a number of geo-political and development imperatives for the region. This comment will focus…

Published in The News International on February 14, 2009: The issue of spurious drugs has been in the spotlight for some time now beginning with the suo moto action by the Supreme Court in 2007 and the subsequent regulatory actions by…

Published in The News International on January 27, 2009: The government is on its way to revamping the country’s accountability infrastructure and statutes. It is evident from a review of news postings in early January, that the National Accountability Bureau…

Nishtar S. Pablos-Mendez A. The Global Financial downturn—imperatives for the health sector. Lancet 2009;373:124. Download Attached file # 1

Published in The News International on January 05, 2009:  The December 22, 2008 issue of Newsweek featured an article on the downside of Chinese state reform. Entitled ‘Why China is too scared to spend’, the article drew attention to the weaknesses…

Published in The News International on December 14, 2008: There is an apprehension within the development circles that the economic impact emanating from the crisis in international commodity markets and the affects of the global financial downturn coupled with constrained…

Evans T, Nishtar S, Atun R, Etienne C. Scaling up research and learning for health systems: time to act. Lancet 2008;372(9649):1529-31. Download Attached file # 1

Published in The News International on October 23, 2008: Pakistan’s security situation and the war on terror has become a top priority for the government. While the need to prioritize issues is understandable, attention to some other matters of the…

Published in The News International on September 30, 2008: The government has decided to repeal the National Accountability Ordinance 1999, and has drafted a bill to legislate for an alternative accountability mechanism; with the promulgation of these statutes, the National…

Published in The News International on September 08, 2008: With the conclusion of presidential elections, the power configuration within the state has been defined. ‘Majority rule’ or ‘a few ruling with the consent of many’, described by the Greeks centuries…

Published in The News International on August 17, 2008: 14th of August is as august as a day can get, both for Pakistanis who have witnessed the perils of partition and experienced the anguish of being in a subservient role…

Published in The News International on August 09, 2008: It is conventional for the commercial sector to assess and comment on the potential impact of a trade policy as was evidenced by the plethora of commentaries on the media subsequent…

Published in The News International on August 03, 2008:  Between the government and their critics, opinions relating to the government’s hundred-day performance are at the extreme ends of a spectrum. Unfortunately as a nation, we are not in the habit…

Published in The News International on July 14, 2008:  In the midst of all the overarching challenges the country faces, sectoral policy and strategy appears to be relegated to the background; the latter cannot be mainstreamed in any case without…

Published in The News International on June 28, 2008: With all the four provincial budgets for the fiscal year 2008/09 tabled, the annual provincial development programs for the next year have been unveiled. Provincial development budgets range from 22.12-41.13% of…

Published in The News International on June 21, 2008:  Had it been conventional to place the budget in the public domain to solicit inputs of the civil society on the directions proposed therein, suggestions such as the one articulated in…

Published in The News International on May 22, 2008: With economic, food and energy crises looming, criticism can be the most convenient past time. Such situations however, are also the litmus test for patriotism, given that a true commitment to…

Published in The News International on April 06, 2008:  Perceived as an effort aimed at planning strategically the Prime Minister’s 100 day agenda is a step in the right direction. The points articulated therein are substantively valid if implemented in…

Published in The News International on March 18, 2008: Elections 2008 will soon come to fruition with the formation of a new government. Regardless of who assumes office, being in the government is not going to be an enviable position…

Published in The News International on January 30, 2008:  In its report entitled “The State of the World’s Children, 2008” UNICEF’s reiteration of Pakistan’s stalling position to meet the targets stipulated in the Millennium Declaration particularly with reference to MDG…

Published in The News International on December 31, 2007: With the elections of 2008 forthcoming, and a change of hands on the governments reigns envisaged shortly, it is evident that any new government in Pakistan will have many issues to…

Published in The News International on December 09, 2007: Pakistan’s ranking on the 7th position in the recently released Global Corruption Barometer by Transparency International should lend a serious impetus to address an issue, which is deeply ingrained in the…

Nishtar S. Integrating a new public health order. Lancet 2007;370(9603):1901.

Nishtar S. Time for a global partnership on Non-Communicable Diseases. Lancet 2007;370(9603):1887-8.

Published in The News International on August 05, 2007: Transparency International’s World Corruption Report of 2007 with its focus on corruption in the judicial system is of contemporaneous relevance to Pakistan with respect to the spotlight on the judiciary. However,…

Published in The News International on July 01, 2007:  For most of us, disease pandemics are forgone history; plague killed 12 million people in 1855, but we think of it just as a setting in Jean Plaidy’s novels. Influenza claimed…

Published in The News International on June 10, 2007: The federal budget for 2007 will be presented on June the 9th, subsequent to which a special parliamentary session will be convened to debate the budget. Within this context, this article…

Published in The News International on February 25, 2007: The recent divide of opinion about the construction of the medical tower in Islamabad, the indication that another is in the pipeline for Karachi, signaling of investments underway in high-tech equipment,…

Nishtar S. Community health promotion – a step further. Promot Educ. 2007;14(2):61-2, 109-10, 124-5.

Published in The News International on January 30, 2007: Social policy is central to politics and one of the major responsibilities of governments. In many developed countries the entire political debate is structured around social guarantees that representative political contenders…

Nishtar S. The WHO Director General election finale. Lancet 2007;369(9557):185 Download Attached file # 1

Published in The News International on January 07, 2007: Policy issues relating to drugs and pharmaceuticals have increasingly been in the spotlight in 2006; the impetus to this came from the saga of the sale of spurious drugs and the…

Published in The News International on November 05, 2006: The explosive outbreak of Dengue raises several important policy questions for long term public health planning in Paksitan. Dengue is making headlines with widespread public attention and political response. True that…

Published in The News International on October 01, 2006: The Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet on Wednesday the 27th decided to allow foreign companies to invest in the insurance business in Pakistan on the premise that this would help…

Published in The News International on September 30, 2006: We have a history of starting things denovo in this country. Individually and institutionally, we must scrap past initiatives, create silos, never build on efforts underway and whenever the adage “we…

Published in The News International on September 10, 2006: The configuration of the four health projects presented to August the 23rd’s Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) meeting raise some broader issues that need to be the substrate…

Published in The News International on August 27, 2006: Why does technology get spotlighted in the discourse over health outcomes and the discussion on health sector reform? For the simple reason that health and technology have shared agendas. It is…

Published in The News International on August 06, 2006: Perhaps no other health policy intervention in recent times has been the substrate of a greater controversy compared with restructuring the mode of primary health care service delivery in Rahim Yar…

Published in The News International on July 02, 2006: ‘Playing health’ with a new stack of cards The planet earth’s environmental and ecological transformation is a subject of much ado as are the contemporary concerns around the power dynamics, which…

Published in The News International on June 30, 2006: Flagging a 21.3% increase in the budgetary allocation for health as part of the unprecedented increase in the development expenditure in the fiscal budget of 2006-07, the recital of June 5,…

Published in The News International on June 06, 2006: Budget 2006 is just around the corner with an indication that there would, both, be aggregate as well as program-specific enhanced allocations for health. This raises the question of whether these…

Published in The News International on May 28, 2006: Changes in public-private roles are interlinked with broader changes in the macro-economy. Limitations of centrally planned economies, the resultant privatization of State-owned enterprise accentuated by fiscal constraints and donor conditionalities have…

Nishtar S, Perry M, Lammare MC, Ritchie J. Global Consortium on Community Health Promotion. Promotion and Education 2006;XIII(1):7-8.

Published in The News International on April 30, 2006: A news feature in The NEWS on April the 4th has outlined the NWFP Department of Health’s intent to launch a social health insurance scheme for the province. Aimed at improving…

Published in The News International on April 09, 2006: Civil service reforms need to be an integral part of social sector reform processes if sustainable solutions to currently existing issues within the ambit social sector service delivery are envisaged. Within…

Published in The News International on March 05, 2006: Given that diseases such as the Plague, SARS, HIV/AIDs and Avian Flu do not respect national boundaries, the news of Avian Flu in our immediate neighborhood, left a slim choice between…

Published in The News International on February 08, 2006: Recent controversies around the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), the efforts presently underway to break the resulting stalemate and more topically offered solutions now favoring a major overhaul highlight an…

Nishtar S. Improving heart health in Europe. Circulation 2006;113(4):f16 Download Attached file # 1