User:Mazhar Nisar/sandbox/Mazhar Nisar

Mazhar Nisar is a renowned English Broadcaster and a well known health communication specialist based in Islamabad. Then a very young college student, he joined Radio Pakistan on 11th June, 1995 as an English News Reader. Owing to his confident style, authoritative delivery of news and flawless accent, he was noticed soon in the broadcasting world.

On the 10th of January, 1996, Mazhar Nisar was offered the largest English Program on Radio Pakistan, Islamabad Calling. He took over from Shamoon Hashmi and Tauseeq Haider who were hosting the show during that time. From then onwards there was no looking back for him as he became one of the most popular talk show hosts on Radio gaining currency among listeners within Pakistan and abroad and from different cultures and age groups across the country. His program gained immense popularity among officers and men stationed at Siachin.

Soon the program became a kind of lifeline for them as they would on daily basis use the program as a bridge with their families and loved ones besides a platform to express and share their ideas with the world and seek entertainment. For outstanding performance, Mazhar Nisar was awarded the Radio Pakistan National Award for best English compere of the year 1999. He was later to get National Award for best English News reader for the year 2001 and then another National Award for the best English News reader for the year 2006. On 5th November, 1999, Mazhar Nisar joined Pakistan Television as a News Anchor, an era when only few could dream of this status with only one news channel in the country and just one English bulletin at 6 p.m.Mazhar quickly made his mark with his authoritative and confident style.

He was soon compared with stalwarts like Shaista Zaid and Chishti Mujahid. In 2002, he won the National Award for Best English News Anchor on Pakistan Television. Mazhar Nisar was later designated as official Master of Ceremonies and announcer for all state ceremonies at the President House. He has hosted the most prestigious and high profile ceremonies for different heads of state. Numerous events at the national level, international conferences, seminars and cultural events were subsequently hosted by him. As a broadcaster Mazhar Nisar has lent his voice to hundreds of prestigious national and international projects including documentaries and short films. Mazhar has also lent his voice to plays produced by the Central Production Unit of Radio Pakistan which competed in various international festivals across the globe.

On 23rd March, 2007, Mazhar Nisar became the youngest recipient of the highest national award in his profession-the President's Award of Tamgha-i-Imtiaz. This was the highest recognition for years of dedicated work par excellence in the arena of broadcasting. Besides broadcasting, Mazhar Nisar is also known as a well established health communication expert and public health professional. He has years of experience working as an adviser on health education, advocacy, communication and media management with the Ministry of Health.

He has also served as National Coordinator for Tobacco Control in the Ministry of Health. He is a recipient of outstanding performance Award for excellence in the health sector in the year 2005. Mazhar has represented Pakistan abroad in 23 different countries in high profile conferences on public health and health communication. He has had the honor of representing the country in the prestigious forum of World Health Assembly in 2014, 2015 and 2016 at United Nations office in Geneva as Pakistan's delegate.

He has also represented Pakistan in the Global Tobacco Control Forum - the Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in 2006, Geneva, Switzerland, in 2007, Bangkok, Thailand and in 2014 Moscow, Russian Federation.

He is the designated official Spokesman of the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination. He also remained Official Spokesman of the erstwhile Ministry of Health from 2005 to 2011 before the Ministry was abolished under the 18th constitutional amendment besides serving as official spokesman of the National Institute of Health Islamabad from 2002 to 2005.

Mazhar Nisar has been designated as the Election Campaign coordinator for Pakistan's Election to the prestigious position of global head of World Health Organization, a campaign that required canvassing with UN member states in all six global regions of the World through 2016 and first half of 2017. He has served at the Prime Minister's office from 2011 to 2013. He is currently serving as Director at the Ministry of National Health Services responsible for international cooperation. Mazhar Nisar who is well known as a hard working, upright and conscientious officer has held the following positions in the Federal Government prior to his current assignment as Director responsible for International Cooperation in the Ministry of National Health Services; Health Education Adviser, Ministry of Health Government of Pakistan, National Coordinator Tobacco Control, National Coordinator School Health Program, National Coordinator Healthy Lifestyle Program, Health Education Adviser, National Institute of Health Islamabad, Health Education Officer Expanded Program on Immunization, Health Education Officer National Program for Family Planning and Primary Health-care, Officer Incharge Advocacy and Communication, Office of Special Assistant to the Prime Minister at the Prime Minister's Office, Director Health Communication Polio Emergency Program, Faculty Health Communication for Masters in Public Health at Health Services Academy Islamabad, Lecturer at College of Medical Technology Islamabad.

Mazhar has remained editor of different publications including Pakistan Polio News, Immunization Times, Elixir- an Annual Publication of College of Medical Technology Islamabad, Academica-annual publication of Federal Government College, Islamabad. He has been invited for years as Judge for National English debate and Declamation Contests at Federal Government Colleges including ICG F6, IMCG F6, G10 besides The City School, Lahore Grammar School and Froebel's Rawalpindi. Mazhar Nisar has a Master's in Public Health, Masters in Sociology and Masters in English Language and Literature as his qualifications. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Public Health. Mazhar's early schooling was in the West African country of Nigeria from where he completed his O' levels from Government College, Maiduguri, Borno State. He has trained in broadcasting with Sandy Walsh from the BBC Radio, Zain Verjee of CNN and David Pass more of BBC TV. In the arena of health communication, he has trained with the Johns Hopkins University, USA.

Mazhar Nisar comes from a well known political family of Lahore being the Grandson of Sheikh Mohammed Rashid who was twice elected Member National Assembly from the city. Popularly known as Baba-i-Socialism, he served the country as Senior Federal Minister (Deputy Prime Minister) during Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's regime with portfolios of health, agriculture and population planning. He was also the first President of PPP Punjab and led the party to a landslide victory in 1970 elections which brought the party to power for the first time. Sheikh Mohammed Rashid remained the Senior Vice Chairman of Pakistan People's Party for over three decades. When Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was arrested by the coup leaders in 1977 and shifted to Murree where he was kept under house arrest, he nominated Sheikh Mohammed Rashid to act as the party's chairman.

Mazhar Nisar's Grandmother, Shakeela Rasheed was Member of the National Assembly from PPP in 2002 to 2007 and 2008 to 2013 National Assemblies.

Mazhar Nisar's father, Dr. Nisar Ahmed Sheikh was a well know parasitologist and microbiologist who studied at the prestigious Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in England and later taught at the University of Maiduguri in Nigeria, was a visiting Professor in 8 different universities in Pakistan besides working as Director at the National Institute of Health in Islamabad. An established scientist in his field, he contributed many research papers to journals of international acclaim.