Zafar Mirza

Former State Minister of Health of Pakistan, Former Director Health System, World Health Organization

[Zafar Mirza @zfrmrza]

<460> Alhamdolilah, launched first School of Universal Health Coverage at @gihdstmuPHS to align public health education, training, service & research with UHC. An MoU was signed between @NHSRCofficial and STMU - a unique MoU between the government & the Pvt Sector to advance UHC.

[Ilhan Niaz @IlhanNiaz]

The bureaucracy at the health ministry is the source of many of PIMS’s woes - they interfere in every promotion, procurement, proposal, and enjoy lording it over health professionals, explains Zafar Mirza:

[NewsWise @NewsWiseDN]

پاکستان میں صرف 3ہسپتال شوکت خانم، آغا خان اور شفاء انٹرنیشنل تھے جو عالمی معیار JCI میں اے کریڈٹ پرتھے، اب PKLI کو بھی JCI نے اے کریڈٹ میں شامل کیاہے جو پہلا پبلک سیکٹر ہسپتال ہے، یعنی اسی نظام میں اچھا مینجمنٹ سسٹم نافذ کرکے ہسپتالوں کوبہتر طریقے سے چلایا جاسکتا ہے

@zfrmrza

[NewsWise @NewsWiseDN]

پمز کے معاملہ میں ہماری وفاقی وزارت صحت پاور چھوڑنے کے لئے تیار نہیں
اس میں بیٹھے بیوروکریٹس پاور کو enjoy کرتے
پمز ڈاکٹر کی promotions ،پمز کی procurements کوئی تبدیلی کرنی ہو فائل بنے گی لوگ اس فائل کے پیچھے پھریں گے سیکشن آفیسر کو سجدے کریں گے اور اس میں کرپشن بھی یے
@zfrmrza

[Zafar Mirza @zfrmrza]

This is an essential reading to understand “system” and its amebic “shapeshifting” to protect itself. The way @Fahdhusain has articulated his incrimination about “fourteen infants lives later” is only his skill. In his poetic prose he has argued that the system is so “deep stinking rot” that reform now sounds short as a solution. PIMS tragedy should not make us sad but furious. Hammering from outside, dismantling and re building may be in order. Truely, an essential reading on PIMS tragedy, infact PIMS syndrome from which almost all government institutions are suffering from.

https://t.co/Ln4jCmssCK

[Zafar Mirza @zfrmrza]

Federal Minister for Health Mustafa Kamal is under intense criticism these days over the horrible PIMS tragedy, and that criticism is fully understandable.

Politics aside, I am sticking my neck out to defend him. He is neither a doctor nor a public health professional, yet he has very quickly understood the real problems facing Pakistan’s health system. Listen carefully to what he is saying.

He has shown moral courage by openly accepting responsibility (I believe he was stopped by the PM from resigning). He is acknowledging how deeply the health system has rotted from within. He is pointing to political pressures in appointments and openly saying that this is a collective failure of successive governments - a governance issue that must be addressed both upstream and at the facility level.

Most importantly, he has been consistently drawing attention to the quiet deaths of nearly 400,000 under 5 children because of inadequate and suboptimal healthcare across the country i.e. more than 1,000 children every day. This is the real issue we need to tackle. And he knows how complex and difficult it is.

Having sat in this saddle myself, I fully empathise with him, however much he is under fire these days. At least he is showing courage. And, importantly, he is telling the truth.

https://t.co/f5F1TSulIM

[Zafar Mirza @zfrmrza]

Both are responsible. This is why to start with Secretary Health was suspended. At the same time managers/clinicians on ground whose direct responsibility is to make system work and make it safe cannot be exonerated from their responsibility and hence accountability. And, as I have written in my tweet, I hope this tragedy starts a system level reform.

[Zafar Mirza @zfrmrza]

I appreciate swift, objective and conclusive investigation into PIMS tragedy and equally swift decisions by the Prime Minister. A much bigger challenge ahead is how this tragic incidence is used as a basis for reforming hospital sector and health system in the country without which such tragedies would continue to happen - it is just a matter of time. If wisdom guides, such reset must start now.

https://t.co/KcbuKT2C7E

[Zafar Mirza @zfrmrza]

https://t.co/kfX71mkeLu

[Shehzad Ghias Shaikh @Shehzad89]

PIMS exposes Pakistan's Healthcare System - why the tragedy at PIMS happened:
https://t.co/4LLXicgfMQ

Dr. Zafar Mirza comes back on TPE to discuss the collapse of Pakistan's health care system, the state of hospitals in Pakistan and why such tragedies keep happening.

[Beena Raza @razabeena]

As always great insights by @zfrmrza . As a seasoned public health expert he highlights the key issues and challenges . Pakistan’s public-health crisis is not one single emergency; it is an accumulation of underfunded primary care, malnutrition, infectious-disease exposure, 1/n

[The Thursday Times @thursday_times]

پمز واقعہ کی تحقیقات کیلئے گہرائی تک جانا ہو گا۔
ائیر کنڈیشنڈ کیسے پھٹا؟ فائر سیفٹی نظام کیوں خراب تھا؟ ڈیوٹی پر کون تھا اور متعلقہ عملہ کہاں تھا؟
سب سے بڑھ کر ادارے کے سربراہ، ایگزیکٹو ڈائریکٹر، پر ذمہ داری عائد ہوتی ہے۔
نظام کی خامیاں بھی اپنی جگہ موجود ہیں، لیکن صرف نظام کو موردِ الزام ٹھہرا کر افراد کو اُن کی ذمہ داریوں سے بَری نہیں کیا جا سکتا۔

راہنما عوام پاکستان پارٹی و سابق وفاقی وزیرِ صحت ظفر مرزا کا ”تھرسڈے ٹائمز“ کے ساتھ خصوصی انٹرویو

[Centre of Biomedical Ethics and Culture, SIUT @cbec_siut]

What did the conversation mean to those who were part of it?
Following the CBEC–WHO Seminar, Dr Zafar Mirza @zfrmrza reflects on the discussions and the questions raised around Pakistan's evolving HIV response.

#CBEC #WHO #HIV #Bioethics #PublicHealth #GlobalHealth

[Centre of Biomedical Ethics and Culture, SIUT @cbec_siut]

Nothing About Us, Without Us
The CBEC–WHO seminar brought stakeholders together for an open and meaningful dialogue on Pakistan's evolving HIV epidemic, exploring stigma, equity, community participation, patient rights, and stronger health-system responses.

#CBEC #WHO #HIV

[Centre of Biomedical Ethics and Culture, SIUT @cbec_siut]

The CBEC–WHO Collaborative Seminar concludes with a forward-looking discussion bringing together different perspectives for a more equitable and sustainable HIV response in Pakistan.
🔗 Register: https://t.co/Fnxd2xjegV
#CBEC #WHO #HIV #Bioethics #GlobalHealth

[Health Policy Watch @HealthPolicyW]

Banning substandard syringes may help, but experts warn Pakistan’s HIV crisis cannot be fixed by syringes alone.

Weak regulation, poor enforcement, unsafe blood practices and gaps in surveillance all demand action.

✍️@TheRahulRajput
@WHO @WHOPakistan @UNAIDS @cmu_gov @nhsrcofficial @DRA_Pakistan @GovtofPakistan @NA_Committees @BBC @CMShehbaz @zfrmrza @KamalMQM @AHFcares @Winnie_Byanyima
#GlobalHealth #HIV #HealthPolicy #HealthSystems #InfectionPrevention

https://t.co/1zYuNUnZhg

[Zafar Mirza @zfrmrza]

A Great Gift on Independence Day

A pleasure to introduce Adaad.
@hibasameen has given a great gift to Pakistanis on this Independence Day. As a proactive and pro bono rigorous effort she has launched Adaad اعداد - Pakistan Data Insights. It is a rich monthly journal website about Pakistan’s data. It is amazing to see the breadth and depth of the Pakistani data she collates at one place and package it in the most accessible and palatable forms. She has launched the Vol 1, Issue 1 on 14 August 2026. An economist with PhD, she works with large administrative and survey datasets. Data Darbar part of the website presents an open explorer of the census data, 8-digit trade, national accounts and the federal budget. And, Aiwan-e-Jamhoor is an analysis of data from eleven general elections, 1977-2024 mapped on the boundaries in force at the time, with the full candidate list behind every seat. Every number is referenced and full datasets are embedded and downloadable. What a great effort. Thank you Hiba Sameen.

[Hiba Sameen @hibasameen]

In the past months I've been on a mission to make Pakistan's public data more useable through building open source databases and visualisations.

Today I'm launching Adaad (اعداد), a monthly data journal on Pakistan. Adaad is where those datasets become arguments and insights.

Everything here is made to be taken. The prose, the charts and the cleaned datasets are published under a Creative Commons licence (CC BY 4.0). Translate a piece for an Urdu newspaper. Rebuild a chart for a classroom. Rerun the analysis and publish your disagreement. All we ask is a line of credit and a link to the source.

Adaad also publishes contributors. If you have a question the data can answer — or data that raises a question — pitch it to [email protected]. For more details on what is required for a pitch, please see the about section.

Happy Independence Day — the struggle continues!

https://t.co/jPlWnkbD8X

[Zafar Mirza @zfrmrza]

A good article by @haroonkhawaja67 on creating new provinces in Pakistan. He argues that all districts should be converted into provinces. Actually, the idea is not bad.

https://t.co/uUrBwecAdS

[Awaam Pakistan @AwaamPakistan]

جب تک قانون پر عمل درآمد نہیں ہوگا تو ملک نہیں چلے گا !!

[HUM News @humnewspakistan]

جب ایک شخص اپنی دھرتی، گرد و پیش، اس کی تاریخ، پوٹینشل اور مسائل سے آگاہ ہو جاتا ہے تو وہ دلیر بن جاتا ہے۔
اپنے گرد و پیش کے ساتھ اس کا ایک مضبوط رشتہ قائم ہو جاتا ہے اور وہ انسان کبھی نہیں چاہےگا کہ اپنے ملک کو نقصان پہنچائے: اداکار جمال شاہ
#HumNews
@LeylaZuberi
@SydJamalShah
@zfrmrza
@MonaAlamm

[HUM News @humnewspakistan]

اگر ایک کمرے میں بڑے بڑے ہاتھی موجود ہوں تو انہیں نظر انداز نہیں کیا جاسکتا، ویسے ہی حکومت کی legitimacy نہ ہونا کمرے میں وہ ہاتھی ہے جسے ہم نظر انداز نہیں کرسکتے۔
پاکستان میں اگر کسی چیز میں اضافہ ہوا ہے تو وہ صرف آبادی ہے: ڈاکٹر ظفر مرزا
#HumNews
@LeylaZuberi
@SydJamalShah
@zfrmrza
@MonaAlamm