Shah Mehmood Qureshi was born on the 22 of June 1956 in the northern city of Murree. He belongs to an influentialpirfamily that is well known in politics in Pakistan. His late father was theGovernor of Punjab in early 80’s at the time when General Zia-ul-Haq was the president of Pakistan.
He studied at Aitchison Collage from where he went to the Forman Christian Collage. He graduated from there after doing his Bachelor’sin History. He completed his Master’s in Law and Politics from the Cambridge University – UK.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi began his political career in the year 1985 when he first contested in the elections and became a member of the Punjab Provincial Assembly. He joined Pakistan Muslim League in 1986. After two years in the PML he resigned and joined the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad in 1988 and was a part of the party till 1990. During his time with the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad he was also the Minister of Planning and Development.
In the year 1990 he joined the Pakistan People’s Party at the time when Benazir Bhutto was leading it. With the support of the PPP he won a seat in the National Assembly in the 1993 elections. He wasmade the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs but he lost to Javed Hashmi in the general elections of 1997. In addition he also won the elections of 2002 and 2008. He was appointed the post of the president of the PPP by Benazir Bhutto in the year 2006.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi, after the elections in 2008, was regarded as a nominee for the Prime Minister of Pakistan. However he became the Minister of Foreign Affairs instead but resigned after the famous Raymond Davis case in which the CIA spy was released despite having a murder charges of killing two men in Lahore.
He also resigned from PPP in 2011 and joined the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. Till date he is a member of the PTI and now has been assigned the post of Vice Chairman. He states that his core reason to join the PTI was to help change Pakistan and make it a corruption free country. He is a sitting PTI MNA after winning a National Assembly seat in 2013 elections.
This article was last updated on Aug 2013
