Pakistani Politics: Ahsan Iqbal

Ahsan Iqbal

PML(n)

Ahsan Iqbal

History Of Ahsan Iqbal

Ahsan Iqbal (Urdu: احسن اقبال) (born September 28, 1958) is a Pakistani politician Member of National Assembly and the former Federal Minister for Education (Pakistan). He is the Deputy Secretary General of the center-right party PML-N, and also a member of the Central Executive Committee of the party. He was elected as an MNA from his constituency NA-117 (Narowal-III) in the February 2008 elections. He served as a Federal Minister for Education in the coalition government of PPP, PML-N, ANP and JUI-F formed after 2008 elections, but later resigned when his party pulled out of the coalition on 12 May 2008.

Life and Education

Ahsan Iqbal Victory Sign

Ahsan Iqbal, son of late Engr Iqbal Ahmed Chaudhary and late Apa Nisar Fatima (ex MNA) daughter of Chaudhary Abdur Rehman, ex MLA Jullunder, India pre-partition. Ahsan Iqbal was born in Lahore. His schools were the Cantt Public School Karachi, PAF Public School, Sargodha and the Government College, Lahore. He then studied mechanical engineering at the UET Lahore (1976–1981), where he was elected President of the Students Union (1980–81) before moving to the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania for an MBA degree (1984–1986),. He has also attended executive programs at universities including the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University (1989), the University of Oxford (1992) and Harvard University (2004).

His political career started in 1980 when he was elected President of Students Union on the platform of Islami Jamiat-e-Talabain University of Engineering & Technology, Lahore. In 1988 he joined PML (a part of IJI then) later becoming PMLN, and rose to become its Information Secretary in 2006 during the regime of General Pervaiz Musharraf. He was elected for the first time as an MNA from NA-90 Narowal (now NA-117) in the general elections of 1993, and later re-elected from the same constituency in February 1997. He won his seat again in 2008 securing 59% of the casted votes and lost a controversial election in 2002 to Riffat Javed Kahloon . He was elected Deputy Secretary General of PML-N in the General Council meeting of PML-N on 27 July, 2011.