Pawar, seeded 11th, brushed aside local shuttler Joshua Curry 21-5 21-9 in a lop-sided first-round match, before taming Malaysia's Zulhelmi Zulkiffli 21-11 21-17 at the North Shore Events Centre.
The Indian will next face third seed Lee Hyun Il of Korea. The world no. 22 Korean has beaten Pawar once during their only encounter at the Sri Lanka Open International Challenge last year.
Among other Indians in fray, mixed doubles pair of Tarun Kona and N Sikki Reddy lost 14-21 8-21 to Malaysian combo of Peng Soon Chan and Liu Ying Goh.