PESHAWAR: The provincial government has appointed Dr Shahid Yunis a BPS-20 management cadre officer as new director general health services Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

A graduate of Khyber Medical College, Peshawar, he holds masters degrees in hospital management from University of Leeds (UK) and public health from Provincial Health Services Academy and diploma in health planning & management from Institute of Management Studies (University of Peshawar).

A resident of Swabi district, he has vast experience in health system strengthening, health financing, health policy, strategic planning, health sector reform and implementation of large programmes.

Having over 30 years’ experience of working in the public health sector at various tiers, he began his career in health department from a basic health (BHU) in district Swabi with his latest assignment being as additional director general health services from May 2022, where he looked after implementation of service delivery interventions, disease prevention & control, non-communicable diseases prevention and control, nutrition services and curative, maternal, child and rehab care.

Dr Yunis, who replaced Dr Muhammad Salim Khan, has also remained director Health Care Commission (HCC), where he was credited for ensuring optimum healthcare service provision in the province by designing robust healthcare system structures.

Also in his capacity as regional director health, he operationalised the newly-established directorate and spearheaded performance evaluation process of district health officers, and supervised Covid-19 vaccination in the region ensuring maximum coverage of immunisation.

He also worked as provincial coordinator of the Universal Health Coverage Programme, director Independent Monitoring Unit (IMU) and chief Health Sector Reforms Unit (HSRU) Health Department (July 2015-Oct 2020).

He led the formulation of the first provincial health policy and coordinated with donors, negotiated technical and financial assistance with development partners and management of the technical assistance provided by partners and UN agencies. and was instrumental in major health sector reforms like social health protection initiative, hospital autonomy, improving quality of care through establishment of HCC and Health Foundation to foster public private partnership for improved, efficient and quality service delivery.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2025