Ghulam Ahmad Bilour (; born 25 December 1939) is a Pakistani politician who served as 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 2018. He additionally served as Federal Minister for Railways twice and as Federal Minister for Local Government and Rural Development once.
Early life and education
Bilour was born on 25 December 1939 in Peshawar,
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ps, خېبر پښتونخوا; Urdu, Hindko: خیبر پختونخوا) commonly abbreviated as KP or KPK, is one of the Administrative units of Pakistan, four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, ...
. He received his early education from Khudad Model School and Islamia School Peshawar, He then studied at
Edwardes College
Edwardes College Peshawar is a semi-government degree
The college's undergraduate and graduate degree programs lead to the Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.), 4 year BS Programme in English and Computer Science, Master of Bus ...
and married soon later.
He hails from Bajaur Agency, and comes from a well-known and wealthy business family. He is popularly known as Haji Sahab in Peshawar.
Political career
Bilour participated in the election campaign of
Fatima Jinnah
Fatima Jinnah ( ur, ; 31 July 1893 – 9 July 1967), widely known as Māder-e Millat ("Mother of the Nation"), was a Pakistani stateswoman, politician, dental surgeon and one of the leading founders of Pakistan. She was the younger sister of ...
Awami National Party
The Awami National Party (ANP; ur, , ps, اولسي ملي ګوند; lit. ''People's National Party'') is a Pashtun nationalist, secular and leftist political party in Pakistan. The party was founded by Abdul Wali Khan in 1986 and its curr ...
(ANP) in the 1970s, and was elected to the
Senate of Pakistan
Senate of Pakistan or Aiwān-e-Bālā Pākistān ( ur, , , literally "Pakistan upper house"), is the upper legislative chamber of the bicameral legislature of Pakistan, and together with the National Assembly makes up the Parliament of Pakista ...
in 1975.
He ran for the seat 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 ...
in the
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 ...
Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao
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 Qaumi Watan Party, after previously being a member of the Paki ...
. However he re-ran for the seat in by-elections held following the 1988 and was elected to the National Assembly by winning it for the first time.
He was re-elected to the National Assembly for the second time in the
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 ...
from Constituency NA-1 (Peshawar-I) after defeating
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 ...
. Following the election, he was appointed as the Federal Minister for Railways, a position he held from 1991 to 1993.
He ran for the seat of the National Assembly of Pakistan in the
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 ...
from Constituency NA-1 (Peshawar-I), but was unsuccessful and lost the seat to
Syed Zafar Ali Shah
Syed Zafar Ali Shah ( ur, ) is a Pakistani politician who has served as member of the National Assembly of Pakistan between 1985 and 1998. A member of Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf, Shah previously served as the Deputy Speaker of the National Assem ...
.
He was re-elected to the National Assembly in the
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 ...
from Constituency NA-1 (Peshawar-I). He didn't contest for seat of the National Assembly in the 2002 Pakistani general election.
''DAWN'' reported that he has been jailed several time during his political career. Most notably in 2007 when he was nominated in the murder case of Syed Qammar Abbas. Bilour denied the charge. Earlier in 1997, Syed Qammar Abbas was nominated in a murder case of the son of Bilour.
He was re-elected to the National Assembly from Constituency NA-1 (Peshawar-I) in the
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 ...
. Following the election, he was appointed as the Federal Minister for Local Government and Rural Development. He was then appointed Federal Minister for Railways in November 2008.
''DAWN'' reported that Bilour during his tenure as Minister for Railways was criticised and was alleged for corruption. In 2012, Bilour was named as an accused in a multi-billion scrap scandal, which was investigated by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
He ran for the seat of the National Assembly of Pakistan in the
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 ...
from Constituency NA-1 (Peshawar-I), but was unsuccessful and lost the seat to
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 ...
However he re-ran for the seat in by-elections held in July 2013 and was elected to the National Assembly by winning it.
He ran for the seat of the National Assembly from Constituency NA-31 (Peshawar-V) as a candidate of ANP in
2018 Pakistani general election
General elections were held in Pakistan on Wednesday, 25 July 2018 to elect the members of 15th National Assembly and the four Provincial Assemblies. The three major parties Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led by Imran Khan, the Pakistan Muslim ...
but was unsuccessful. He received 42,476 votes and lost the seat to
Shokat Ali
Shokat Ali (born 4 March 1970) is an English snooker player of Pakistani descent, who represents Pakistan in international tournaments.NA-31 (Peshawar-V) as a candidate of ANP in 2022 Pakistan by-elections but was unsuccessful. He received 32,252 votes and lost the seat to Imran Khan.
Calling for assassinations
In 2012, during his tenure as Federal Minister for Railways, he offered a US$100,000 reward for the assassination of the maker of an anti-Islam film, the ''
Innocence of Muslims
''Innocence of Muslims'' is an anti-Islamic short film that was written and produced by Nakoula Basseley Nakoula. Two versions of the 14-minute video were uploaded to YouTube in July 2012, under the titles "The Real Life of Muhammad" and "Muham ...
''. He also sought support of members of the Taliban and al Qaeda and was quoted saying "that if members of the banned militant organisations kill the maker of the blasphemous movie, they will also be rewarded." Following the statement of Bilour, he was criticised and his party ANP distanced itself from the statement of Bilour, however ANP decided not to take any action against Bilour. In response the
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan
The Pakistani Taliban (), formally called the Tehreek-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan (Urdu/ ps, , lit=Student Movement of Pakistan, TTP), is an umbrella organization of various Islamist armed militant groups operating along the Afghan–Pakistani bo ...
said they were allowing Bilour an "amnesty" from their hit list because his views "represent the true spirit of Islam."
In 2015, during his tenure as member of the National Assembly, he announced a $200,000 bounty for the ead of theowner of French satirical weekly
Charlie Hebdo
''Charlie Hebdo'' (; meaning ''Charlie Weekly'') is a French satirical weekly magazine, featuring cartoons, reports, polemics, and jokes. Stridently non-conformist in tone, the publication has been described as Anti-racism, anti-racist, sceptica ...
that published blasphemous caricatures nd$100,000 compensation for the families of those hokilled 1 peopleduring the
Charlie Hebdo shooting
On 7 January 2015, at about 11:30 a.m. CET local time, two French Muslim terrorists and brothers, Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, forced their way into the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper '' Charlie Hebdo'' in Paris. Armed with ...