Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao (آفتاب احمد خان شېرپاؤ; born 20 August 1944) is a Pakistani politician who is the current chairman of the centre-left

Pashtun nationalist Pashtun nationalism ( ps, پښتون ملتپالنه) generally refers to the idea that Pashtuns must always be united to preserve their culture and defend their homeland against any oppressor. It propagates the view that Muslims are not a nation ...

Qaumi Watan Party Qaumi Watan Party ( ps, قومي وطن ګوند or ; ur, قومی وطن پارٹی), abbreviated as QWP and formerly called Pakistan Peoples Party–Sherpao (PPP–S), is one of the prominent political parties in Pakistan, that split away from ...

, after previously being a member of the

Pakistan Peoples 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 ...

. He was 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 November 2002 to May 2018. Sherpao previously served as the Federal Interior Minister of Pakistan. Prior to this assignment he was the Federal Minister for Water and Power, Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas and States & Frontier Regions and Minister for Interprovincial Coordination. Sherpao has also served as the 14th and 18th Chief Minister of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Early life and education

Aftab Khan Sherpao was born on 20 August 1944. Sherpao received his early from Lawrence College Murree, and Edwardes College, Peshawar. He joined Pakistan Military Academy with 34th Long Course in 1964. After passing out from Pakistan Military Academy in 1965, he joined

Pakistan Army The Pakistan Army (, ) is the Army, land service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The roots of its modern existence trace back to the British Indian Army that ceased to exist following the partition of India, Partition of British India, wh ...

where he remained in the service for 12 years during which he rose to the rank of Major. While in military, he took part in

Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 or the Second Kashmir War was a culmination of skirmishes that took place between April 1965 and September 1965 between Pakistan and India. The conflict began following Pakistan's Operation Gibraltar, which was d ...

and Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. He is brother of Hayat Sherpao.

Political career

Sherpao started his political career with

in 1975 after taking retirement from Pakistan Army on the advice of then Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto after his elder brother Hayat Sherpao was assassinated in a bomb blast in Peshawar. He was elected to

for the first time in

1977 Pakistani general election General elections were held in Pakistan on 7 March 1977 to elect 200 members of the National Assembly. They were the second general elections held in Pakistan and the first to be held after the Bangladesh Liberation War, which saw East Pakista ...

on Pakistan Peoples Party seat. from NA-3. He boycotted

1985 Pakistani general election General elections were held in Pakistan on 25 February 1985 to elect members of the National Assembly.Pa ...

. He was re-elected to the National Assembly in

1988 Pakistani general election General elections were held in Pakistan on 16 November 1988 to elect the members of the National Assembly and Senate. The elections saw the resurgence of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) under the leadership of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's daughter, B ...

. He was elected as the Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 1988 and remained in the office from 2 December 1988 till 8 August 1990. He became the Leader of the Opposition in the

Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is a unicameral legislature of elected representatives of the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which is located in Peshawar, the provincial capital. It was established under Article 106 of t ...

following

1990 Pakistani general election General elections were held in Pakistan on 24 October 1990 to elect the members of the National Assembly. The elections were primarily a contest between the People's Democratic Alliance (PDA, a four party alliance led by the ruling Pakistan Pe ...

. He was re-elected as the Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 1994 following

1993 Pakistani general election General elections were held in Pakistan on 6 October 1993 to elect the members of National Assembly. The elections took place after both the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and President Ghulam Ishaq Khan resigned to resolve a power struggle. Prior ...

, in which he defeated

Afzal Khamosh The Mazdoor Kisan Party (MKP; ps, مزدور کِسان ګوند; ur, ; lit. "Workers and Peasants Party") is a communist party in Pakistan. It was founded on 1 May 1968 by Afzal Bangash and Sher Ali Bacha. Other prominent leaders included Is ...

of the

Mazdoor Kisan Party The Mazdoor Kisan Party (MKP; ps, مزدور کِسان ګوند; ur, ; lit. " Workers and Peasants Party") is a communist party in Pakistan. It was founded on 1 May 1968 by Afzal Bangash and Sher Ali Bacha. Other prominent leaders inclu ...

by a narrow margin of 54 votes. He remained Leader of the Opposition in the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from 1993 to 1997. He was re-elected to the National Assembly in

1997 Pakistani general election General elections were held in Pakistan on 3 February 1997 to elect the members of National Assembly. The elections were a fierce contest between Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) led by pre-election Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and the Pakistan Mus ...

. He remained senior Vice-Chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party from 1997 to 1999 and leader of Pakistan Peoples Party in the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from 1997 to 1999. In 1999, he developed differences with

Benazir Bhutto Benazir Bhutto ( ur, بینظیر بُھٹو; sd, بينظير ڀُٽو; Urdu ; 21 June 1953 – 27 December 2007) was a Pakistani politician who served as the 11th and 13th prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 t ...

. It was reported that differences between Sherpao and Benazir Bhutto were cropped after the defeat of PPP in

. Benazir Bhutto suspected that Sherpao played a role over the dismissal of her government. Sherpao denied the claims. After

1999 Pakistani coup d'état The 1999 military takeover in Pakistan was a bloodless ''coup d'état'' initiated by the military staff at the Joint Staff HQ working under Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Pervez Musharraf. The instigators seized con ...

, he went into self-exile in the United Kingdom due to multiple corruption cases. Upon return to Pakistan for 2002 Pakistani general election, he was jailed on corruption charges. In 2002, he created his own faction, of Pakistan Peoples Party-Sherpao and late 2002, was elected unopposed as the chairman of his own faction, Pakistan Peoples Party-Sherpao. He was re-elected to the National Assembly in Pakistani general election, 2002. In November 2002, he was appointed as the Minister for Water and Power with the additional portfolio of Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination in the federal cabinet. In December 2002, Sherpao was given additional charge of Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas and State of Frontier Region. In 2004, he was appointed as Minister for Interior in the federal cabinet. After getting re-elected to the National Assembly 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 ...

from his home constituency, NA-8, Charsadda, he formed

. He was re-elected to the National Assembly in

2013 Pakistani general election General elections were held in Pakistan on Saturday 11 May 2013 to elect the members of the 14th National Assembly and the four Provincial Assemblies. The three major parties were the Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML-N) led by Nawaz Sharif, t ...

Assassinations attempts

In April 2007, he was injured in a

suicide attack A suicide attack is any violent Strike (attack), attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has suicide, accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have oc ...

in Charsadda after a suicide bomber blew himself in a political rally which killed at least 22 people. It was the first attack on him. In December 2007, second assassination attempt was made when a suicide bomb blast targeted Sherpao which killed at least 57 in a mosque in Charsadda. In April 2015, Sherpao was targeted in a suicide attack in Charsadda for the third time. Sherpao survived the attack.

External links

Official Twitter

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sherpao, Aftab Ahmad Living people 1944 births Pakistani MNAs 1977 Pakistani MNAs 1997–1999 Pakistani MNAs 2002–2007 Pakistani MNAs 2008–2013 Pakistani MNAs 2013–2018 Pakistan Army officers Pakistani prisoners and detainees Pakistani exiles North-West Frontier Province MPAs 1988–1990 North-West Frontier Province MPAs 1993–1996 Government of Shaukat Aziz Qaumi Watan Party politicians Edwardes College alumni Lawrence College Ghora Gali alumni Pashtun people Aftab Ahmad Interior Ministers of Pakistan Chief Ministers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistani political party founders Pakistan People's Party politicians