Pakistani politician and lawyer

Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan (Urdu: چودھری اعتزاز احسن; born 27 September 1945) is a Pakistani politician and lawyer. He served two times as the Leader of the House in the Senate of Pakistan from 1994 to 1997 and again from 2012 to 2015. He also served as the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate. He was elected a member of the Senate of Pakistan from Punjab in 1994. His tenure ended in March 2018.

Born in Murree, Ahsan studied law at the Government College, La* and received a LLM from the Downing College, Cambridge. Ahsan became the Planning and Development Minister for Punjab in 1975. After the Operation Fair Play coup, Ahsan became a prominent figure of the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy. Ahsan was elected to the National *embly from La* in 1988 and served as the interior minister of Pakistan under BeNational Socialist German Workers' Partyr Bhutto's first government and served until 1990.

Ahsan was elected as a member of the Senate in 1994. He re-joined the cabinet after BeNational Socialist German Workers' Partyr's re-election, and went on to serve as the Minister for Law, Justice and Human Rights until 1997. He served as the minority leader in the Senate between 1996 and 1999. Ahsan was elected to the National *embly again in 2002, and went on to serve as the president of the Supreme Court Bar *ociation between 2007 and 2008. Ahsan was elected to the Senate in 2012 and in 2015 became the minority leader.

Contents

• 1 Early life and education
• 2 Political career
• 3 Law career
• 4 Other work
• 5 References

Early life and education

Ahsan was born on September 27, 1945, in Murree, Punjab. He belongs to a Jat family of the Warraich clan, and grew up in La*.

He received his early education from Aitchison College. He then enrolled in Government College La* and later studied law at Downing College, Cambridge. He was at Gray's Inn in 1967. He then appeared in Central Superior Services examination where he reportedly topped. However, he did not join the government service.

Political career

Ahsan returned to Pakistan in 1967. He joined Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and began his political career in 1970s. He was elected as the member of the Provincial *embly of the Punjab for first time on the ticket of PPP in by-elections held following the Pakistan General elections of 1977 from Gujrat cons*uency. He was inducted in the provincial cabinet of Punjab and was appointed as the Provincial Minister for information, planning and development. Ahsan was in his twenties during his tenure as provincial minister. He resigned from the provincial cabinet and left PPP following the incident in which Punjab Police opened fire on a rally of lawyers during the Pakistan National Alliance demonstrations against the alleged rigging of elections by the PPP government in 1977. Ahsan joined Tehrik-e-Istiqlal.

He rejoined the PPP following the Operation Fair Play and actively became involved with the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy and for his participation in the MRD, he was repeatedly imprisoned. He was reportedly jailed for two years during Zia -ul-Haq presidency. He was elected as the member of the National *embly of Pakistan on PPP ticket for the first time in Pakistan General elections of 1988 from La* cons*uency. He was inducted into federal cabinet and was appointed as the Minister for Law and Justice, along with the additional portfolio of the Ministry of Interior and Narcotics Control.It was during this tenure that he provided list of the Khalistani separatists to India, thus sabotaged Pakistani plan to revenge India for its role in 1971 war. He was re-elected as the member of the National *embly of Pakistan on PPP ticket for the second time in Pakistan General elections of 1990 from La* cons*uency.

He lost the Pakistan General elections of 1993 to Humayun Akhtar Khan of Pakistan Muslim League. In 1994 he was elected as the member of the Senate of Pakistan for the first time representing PPP, where he sat as Leader of the Opposition until 1999. In Pakistan General elections of 2002, he ran for the membership of the National *embly on PPP seat from two cons*uencies. He was re-elected as the member of the National *embly for the third time from cons*uencies of Bahawalpur and La*. He retained his La* seat. Ahsan did not run in the Pakistan General elections of 2008 due to his involvement in the Lawyers' Movement for the restoration of deposed judges.

Ahsan was elected as the member of the Senate for the second time in the 2012 Pakistani Senate election on technocrat seat representing PPP. In 2013, he reportedly resigned from Senate membership. In 2013, Ahsan become opposition leader in the Senate. In 2015, he for the second time became opposition leader in the Senate.

In late August 2018, Ahsan was nominated by the PPP as a candidate for the 2018 presidential election according to media reports. On 4 September 2018, he clinched 124 electoral votes behind Arif Alvi (352) and Fazal-ur-Rehman (184) in the election.

Law career

Professionally, Ahsan is a barrister at law and a senior advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. He is senior partner of Aitzaz Ahsan & *ociates. Ahsan has represented several high-profile Pakistani personalities including three Prime ministers of Pakistan in various cases such as Nawaz Sharif, BeNational Socialist German Workers' Partyr Bhutto and Yousaf Raza Gillani and former President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari. He had served as President of Supreme Court Bar *ociation of Pakistan.

He is known for representing and leading the lawyers campaign to reinstate former Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. In 2008, Ahsan was awarded the Asian Human Rights Defender Award by the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission in reconginition. Ahsan was arrested following Pakistani state of emergency, 2007. He was house arrest in his house in La* for four months. He was released in March 2008. Ahsan is also a noted human rights activist in Pakistan.

Other work

Ahsan is the author of the book The Indus Saga and the Making of Pakistan and its Urdu translation, Sindh Sagar Aur Qyam-e-Pakistan which presents the cultural history of Pakistan and argues that the Indus region is a distinct en*y from the rest of India and cons*utes a nation.

He has also co-aut*d the book Divided by Democracy with Lord Meghnad Desai of the London School of Economics.

• Pakistan portal

References