The new representatives since August 2018
Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi has been chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, the Pakistan Movement for Justice, since 1996 and emerged as Pakistani Prime Minister in the 2018 parliamentary elections in Pakistan. He was a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from 2013 to 2018. Before entering politicsKhan was the captain of the Pakistani national cricket team and in that capacity won the 1992 Cricket World Cup for Pakistan. This success made him a national hero. His family, based in the province of Punjab, comes from the Pashtun tribe Niazi, sub-tribe Sherman Khel, from Mianwali. He himself describes his identity as Pashtun, and discusses this affiliation in detail in his book Warrior Race: A Journey Through the Land of the Tribal Pathans. For the first four years after retiring from cricket in 1992, Khan devoted himself almost entirely to social work. In 1991 he founded the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust,a foundation that bears the name of his mother Shaukat Khanum. As his foundation’s first project, Khan built Pakistan’s first and only cancer clinic. The necessary 25 million US dollars were collected by Khan as donations and funds worldwide. In memory of his mother who died of cancer, the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Center opened in Lahore on December 29, 1994 as a charitable cancer clinic that provides 75 percent of treatments for free. Khan, as chairman of the clinic, tries to raise funds for the operation of the clinic with the help of celebrities and many members of the Indian cricket team. A new cancer clinic in Karachi is scheduled for winter 2019to be inaugurated. During the 1990’s, Khan was UNICEF special envoy in support of health and vaccination programs in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
On September 4, 2018, Dr. Arif-ur Rehman Alvi elected as the new President of Pakistan. Dr. Alvi was born in Karachi in 1949 and comes from a family that moved to the Pakistani part of Karachi after Pakistan separated from India in 1947. He initially worked as a dentist and is one of the founding members of the Pakistan Tehreek-e Insaf (PTI). From June 2013 to May 2018 and from August to September 2018 he was a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan.
Before the elections
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was installed as interim prime minister on August 1, 2017 after Nawaz Sharif was removed from office. He was elected by the National Assembly and was able to assert himself against his rival Naveed Qamar of the PPP (with 221 against 47 votes). The Jamiat Ulema-Islam and Muttahida Qaumi Movement also supported his election. Abbasi was a member of the National Assembly from 1988 to 1999 and has been since 2008. He is a prominent PML-N party member and has held the position of Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources since the 2013 elections. He is currently also the head of the newly created Ministry of Energy and is therefore also the country’s first energy minister.
According to constructmaterials, around two months before the parliamentary elections in Pakistan, the government and the opposition had agreed on a transitional head of government. However, his term of office was manageable. Nasir ul Mulk, a distinguished former presiding judge of the Supreme Court, ran state affairs until the new government took office. It is customary in Pakistan for the incumbent government to resign before elections in order to ensure its neutrality. The term of office of the incumbent government under Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi ended on May 31. Then the parliament dissolved.
Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, ex-prime minister and ex-president of the Pakistan Muslim League (N), was removed from office on July 28, 2017 on allegations of corruption. He is also the head of the Ittefaq group. Sharif was re-elected Prime Minister on June 5, 2013 as a result of the parliamentary elections in Pakistan on May 11, 2013, in which the PML-N emerged as the strongest party. Nawaz Sharif was previously Prime Minister of Pakistan twice, from 1990-93 and 1997-99. In 1999 he was overthrown by Musharraf’s military coup and had to go into exile in Saudi Arabia. Like Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zardari, he also returned for the 2008 elections and led the PML-N as the second largest force and opposition in the 2008-13 legislative period.
Mamnoon Hussain, PML-N politician since the 1960’s and textile merchant, was elected by a large majority as the new President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in June 2013. On September 9, 2013, he officially took his oath as the 12th President; previously he had given up his party membership. He is the successor to the controversial politician Asif Ali Zardari, widower of Benazir Bhutto and co-chairman of the PPP, who stepped down after five years. Mamnoon is known for his loyalty to Nawaz Sharif. In 1999 he was brief governor of Sindh, but his term of office was interrupted by Musharraf’s military coup.
Judge Gulzar Ahmed has been Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in Pakistan since December 21, 2019. He will hold this position until February 1, 2022.
General Raheel Sharif is the new Supreme Commander in Chief of the Pakistani Army since the official handover ceremony on November 29, 2013. He was selected by Nawaz Sharif because he has extensive experience in leading the infantry and fighting the Taliban as well as the strategic conflict with India considered. General Raheel Sharif is considered moderate. It is expected and hoped that he will continue the policies of his predecessor General Kiyani. Kiyani has made a name for itself through its policy of non-intervention in parliamentary politics, even if the military in Pakistan remains a significant political actor.
