Abdul Qadir Baloch (; born 9 April 1945) is a Pakistani politician and retired army general who served as

Minister for States and Frontier Regions The Ministry of States and Frontier Regions ur, , ''wazarat-e- reyasti o sarhadi umoor'' (abbreviated as SAFRON) is a federal ministry in Pakistan. The main responsibilities of the ministry are the administrative affairs and development a ...

in the

third Sharif ministry The third Nawaz Sharif ministry was formed at noon Pakistan Standard Time, PKT on 5 June 2013 when Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif became the Prime Minister of Pakistan, prime minister of Pakistan for the third time. Sharif ...

from 2013 to 2017 and in the

Abbasi cabinet The Abbasi ministry was formed by Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on 4 August 2017 to begin a new government following the disqualification of former Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif until the end of May 2018 when justice Nasirul Mulk took oath a ...

from August 2017 to May 2018. A leader of the

Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) ( ur, , translit=Pākistān Muslim Līg (Nūn) PML(N) or PML-N) is a centre-right and liberal conservative political party in Pakistan. Alongside the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Peoples Party ...

, Baloch briefly served as the

Governor of Balochistan The Governor of Balochistan is the head of the province of Balochistan, Pakistan. The post was established on 1 July 1970, after the dissolution of West Pakistan province and the end of One Unit. Under Pakistan's current parliamentary system, the ...

during

Pervez Musharraf General Pervez Musharraf ( ur, , Parvez Muśharraf; born 11 August 1943) is a former Pakistani politician and four-star general of the Pakistan Army who became the tenth president of Pakistan after the successful military takeover of the ...

rule in 2003. Baloch had been a member of the

National Assembly of Pakistan The National Assembly ( ur, , translit=Aiwān-e-Zairīñ, , or ur, قومی اسمبلی, Romanization, romanized: ''Qaumi Assembly'') is the lower house, lower legislative house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Pakistan, which al ...

from 2008 to May 2018. Baloch has four children named Aurangzeb, Jahnzeb, Fauzia and Nazia

Early life

He was born on 9 April 1945.

Military career

Baloch was appointed as field operations commander of the XXX Corps where he oversaw the redeployment of the military troops near

border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...

with

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. In the wake of the

9/11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated Suicide attack, suicide List of terrorist incidents, terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, Baloch was assigned as field operations commander of the

XII Corps 12th Corps, Twelfth Corps, or XII Corps may refer to: * 12th Army Corps (France) * XII Corps (Grande Armée), a corps of the Imperial French Army during the Napoleonic Wars * XII (1st Royal Saxon) Corps, a unit of the Imperial German Army * XII ...

which had the area of responsibility of the

Balochistan Balochistan ( ; bal, بلۏچستان; also romanised as Baluchistan and Baluchestan) is a historical region in Western and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. ...

Political career

In 2001, Baloch was appointed as

Martial Law Administrator Marcus Valerius Martialis (known in English as Martial ; March, between 38 and 41 AD – between 102 and 104 AD) was a Roman poet from Hispania (modern Spain) best known for his twelve books of '' Epigrams'', published in Rome between AD 86 an ...

. In 2003, he received

honorable discharge A military discharge is given when a member of the armed forces is released from their obligation to serve. Each country's military has different types of discharge. They are generally based on whether the persons completed their training and th ...

from the

army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

and prematurely retired from the military as corps commander of Quetta to be appointed as

. In

2008 Pakistani general election 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...

, Baloch elected as member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from constituency NA-271. In 2010, he joined the

Pakistan Muslim League (N) The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) ( ur, , translit=Pākistān Muslim Līg (Nūn) PML(N) or PML-N) is a Centre-right politics, centre-right and Liberal conservatism, liberal conservative political party in Pakistan. Alongside the Pakistan Teh ...

. In August 2011, Baloch was selected by PML(N) as the assistant secretaries-general of the PML-N for Balochistan. In 2013, the PML(N) allotted a party ticket to Baloch for the constituency NA-271 to participate in

general elections A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

. Baloch performed well in the election and defeated Ahsanullah Raki of PPP. Later, he was appointed as

by the

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Nawaz Sharif Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif (Urdu, Punjabi language, Punjabi: ; born 25 December 1949) is a Pakistani businessman and politician who has served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan for three non-consecutive terms. He is the longest-serving prime ...

and took

oath Traditionally an oath (from Anglo-Saxon ', also called plight) is either a statement of fact or a promise taken by a sacrality as a sign of verity. A common legal substitute for those who conscientiously object to making sacred oaths is to ...

on 8 June 2013. He had ceased to hold ministerial office in July 2017 when the federal cabinet was disbanded following the resignation of Prime Minister

after

Panama Papers case The Panama Papers case (officially titled ''Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi v. Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif''), or the Panamagate case, was a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of Pakistan that disqualified incumbent Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz ...

decision. Following the election of

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi Shahid Khaqan Abbasi ( ur, ; born 27 December 1958) is a Pakistani politician and businessman who served as the 21st prime minister of Pakistan from August 2017 to May 2018. Abbasi is the senior vice president of the Pakiatan Muslim League ...

as Prime Minister of Pakistan, Baloch was inducted into the federal cabinet of Abbasi and was appointed Minister for States and Frontier Regions for the second time. Upon the dissolution of the National Assembly on the expiration of its term on 31 May 2018, Baloch ceased to hold the office as Federal Minister for States and Frontier Regions. On 31 October 2020, Baloch decided to resign from the PMLN due to differences with the party's chief Nawaz Sharif and the party's decision not to invite former Balochistan Chief Minister Sardar Sanaullah Zehri, also a leader of the PMLN, to a public gathering of the Pakistan Democratic Movement. The reason the PMLN leadership cited for not inviting Zehri was his tribal differences with Sardar Akhtar Mengal of the Balochistan National Party. Ihsan Iqbal, a senior leader of the PMLN, said Mr. Baloch had the choice to resign if he wished to do so. Following his resignation, he stated that he could not hold long with the anti-military narrative of the party. On 8 August 2021 he joined the

Pakistan People's Party The Pakistan People's Party ( ur, , ; PPP) is a centre-left, social-democratic political party in Pakistan. It is currently the third largest party in the National Assembly and second largest in the Senate of Pakistan. The party was founded i ...

, who has also held an anti-military narrative calling Former Prime Minister

Imran Khan Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi ( ur}; born 5 October 1952) is a Pakistani politician and former Cricket captain who served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Pakistan from August 2018 to until April 2022, when he was ousted through a no-confidenc ...

, as selected.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baloch, Abdul Qadir 1945 births Living people People from Quetta Baloch people Pakistan Military Academy alumni National Defence University, Pakistan alumni People from Balochistan, Pakistan Pakistani generals Governors of Balochistan, Pakistan Pakistan Muslim League (N) politicians Pakistani political writers People of the Kargil War Pakistani human rights activists People of the insurgency in Balochistan Baloch Regiment officers Pakistani MNAs 2008–2013 Pakistani MNAs 2013–2018 Government ministers of Pakistan