Sardar Asif Ahmad Ali Daula (21 October 1940 – 19 May 2022) was a Pakistani politician who served as the 18th

Foreign Minister of Pakistan The Minister of Foreign Affairs (or simply the Foreign Minister) is the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Pakistan. The minister is responsible for overseeing the federal government's foreign policy and International re ...

from 1993 to 1996. He was a senior member of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Pakistan Peoples Party. On 25 December 2011, he joined PTI but resigned when party awarded

Khurshid Kasuri Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri (Urdu: خورشيد محمود قصورى; born 18 June 1941), is a Pakistani politician and writer who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan between November 2002 until November 2007. He is the Senior Ad ...

National Assembly ticket instead of him. He was elected to the National Assembly of Pakistan from

Kasur Kasur (Urdu and pa, ; also romanized as Qasūr; from pluralized Arabic word ''Qasr'' meaning "palaces" or "forts") is a city to south of Lahore, in the Pakistani province of Punjab. The city serves as the headquarters of Kasur District. Kasu ...

in 1994 and again in 2008 by an impressive margin of ten thousand votes. He has also served as the Minister for Education and Federal Minister of Information Technology and Telecommunication between 2008 and 2010. He rejoined Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf on 10 November 2017 during a press conference with

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 ...

in Lahore.

Career

Sardar Aseff Ahmad Ali was a senior member of the Pakistan Peoples Party. He was the

foreign minister of Pakistan The Minister of Foreign Affairs (or simply the Foreign Minister) is the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Pakistan. The minister is responsible for overseeing the federal government's foreign policy and International re ...

in the cabinet of Benazir Bhutto during her second tenure as

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 i ...

Minister of Economic Affairs

Sardar Aseff also served as the Minister for Economic Affairs during the 1991–1993

Nawaz Sharif Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif (Urdu, 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 minister of Pak ...

government, but resigned from the cabinet after developing differences with the Prime Minister. His resignation along with those of other members of parliament eventually led to overthrow of the first Nawaz Sharif government. While serving as the Economic Affairs Minister, Sardar Aseff led numerous delegations of Pakistani civil society members and organisations to Russia and cultivated business and diplomatic relationships with various disintegrated states of the former

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

. He was awarded honorary citizenship of

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

and

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan,, pronounced or the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and the People's Republic of China to the ea ...

Foreign Minister of Pakistan

, he was unanimously elected chairman of the

Organisation of the Islamic Conference An organization or organisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is an entity—such as a company, an institution, or an association—comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose. The word is derived from ...

. In 2003, he held a painting exhibition at Lahore, where he displayed some of his hand-drawn sketches and paintings, which was attended by then-Prime Minister

Zafarullah Khan Jamali Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali (; 1 January 1940 – 2 December 2020) was a Pakistani politician who served as the 15th prime minister of Pakistan from 2002 until his resignation in 2004. He was the first and only elected prime minister from Balochi ...

. In the recently held general elections, he was returned to the National Assembly for the fifth time after defeating his archrival, the outgoing foreign minister

Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri (Urdu: خورشيد محمود قصورى; born 18 June 1941), is a Pakistani politician and writer who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan between November 2002 until November 2007. He is the Senior Ad ...

Later career

In 2017 he resigned from Pakistan Peoples Party and joined Party of

former cricketer Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. He opposed

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 t ...

's firing of Pakistan's judiciary.

Personal life

Family background

Sardar Aseff Ahmed Ali belonged to a principal landholding

Arain Arain (also known as Raeen) are a large Punjabi agricultural tribe with strong political identity and organisation, found mainly in the Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Sindh with a small population in parts of Indian Punjab, Uttar Pradesh ...

family of the

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising a ...

region whose role in politics, in this region precedes the

British rule in India The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...

. The family has a reputation of repelling authority and was instrumental in fighting against the Sikhs and later the British. His uncle Sardar Muhammad Hussain remained a member of parliament pre and post partition and pioneered the advent of Pakistan Muslim League in central Punjab region. His father Sardar Ahmad Ali (politician) who also remained a member of parliament throughout his career, and Sardar Muhammad Hussain led regional movements against the Unionist Party led by wealthy Zamindars and patronized by the British.

Education

He studied at Lawrence College in Ghora Gali. He earned a B.A. (Hons.) degree from Government College University, Lahore (1959–62), and a B.A. (Hons.) degree from St John's College, Oxford (1963–1966).

Death

Daula died on the evening of 19 May 2022. He had been receiving treatment for a heart condition in a Lahore hospital, and suffered a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

References

External links

DAWN Hot Seat: Sardar Aseff Ahmad Ali
{{DEFAULTSORT:Daula, Aseff Ahmad 1940 births 2022 deaths Foreign Ministers of Pakistan Government College University, Lahore alumni Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf politicians Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Lawrence College Ghora Gali alumni Pakistani MNAs 1990–1993 Pakistani MNAs 2008–2013 People from Kasur District