Dr Asma Humayun works as the national technical advisor on mental health to the Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives since 2021. Currently, she is providing technical support to the federal areas and provinces to implement evidence based and rights-based services for mental healthcare.

She is a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and has more than three decades of experience in clinical care, service development, capacity building, legislation & policy. She is also a member of International Bioethics Committee of UNESCO for four years. She was also a member of the working group that drafted the Mental Health Ordinance 2001.

She has worked for the World Health Organization for over a decade. She has contributed to key guidelines including revision of Stress related disorders in ICD 11 and the mhGAP-IG 2.0 & 3.0. She provided MHPSS to the WHO polio teams in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Geneva in 2012-2014; and spearheaded many other MHPSS initiatives in collaboration with international humanitarian agencies including UNICEF, IMC, ICRC, IRC. She has also been a master trainer mhGAP for ministries of health in Sudan, KSA, Egypt and UAE.

She served an academic faculty of Psychiatry, Rawalpindi Medical University [1997 – 2012]; Director, Medical Education, Rawalpindi Medical University [2009 - 2012]; External Examiner, Aga Khan Medical College, Karachi [2006 – 2012]. She published a textbook on Integrating Behavioural Sciences in Healthcare for medical education in Pakistan and has many international publications; contributed to over twenty guidelines by the WHO; and opinion pieces for mental health advocacy in Dawn over the last twenty years.