Gohar Ali Khan ( ur, ; born 15 April 1971) is a Pakistani lawyer and politician who is the chairman of the

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI; ur, , ) is a political party in Pakistan. It was founded in 1996 by Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, who served as the country's prime minister from 2018 to 2022. The PTI is one of the thre ...

(PTI) since 2 December 2023. He previously served as the party's chief election commissioner from 15 July 2023 till 30 November 2023. As an attorney, Khan has aided 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 ...

, his predecessor as chair of the PTI, in his legal cases. Prior to joining the PTI in 2022, he was affiliated with the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) for 5 years. He had unsuccessfully contested 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 ...

as a member of the PPP. As an attorney, he notably participated in the

Lawyers' Movement The Lawyers' Movement, also known as the Movement for the Restoration of Judiciary or the Black Coat Protests, was the popular mass protest movement initiated by the lawyers of Pakistan in response to the former president and army chief Pervez Mus ...

in 2007, a popular mass protest movement against the unconstitutional suspension of Chief Justice

Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry ( ur, ; born 12 December 1948) is a Pakistani jurist who served as the 20th Chief Justice of Pakistan over three non-consecutive terms from 29 June 2005 to 11 December 2013. Chaudhry began practice as an advocate ...

. Barrister Gohar is been considered close to Aitzaz Ahsan and to businessman

Malik Riaz Malik Riaz Hussain (Urdu, pa, ; born February 8, 1954) is a Pakistani business tycoon who is the founder of Bahria Town, the largest privately held real estate development company in Pakistan and in Asia. Riaz started his career as a clerk w ...

, having served as his legal adviser.

Early life and education

Khan was born in Buner,

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, ...

into a

Pashtun Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically re ...

family of the Yusufzai tribe. His father, Abdur Rauf Khan, originally from Buner, served twice as a member of the

Provincial Assembly of the North-West Frontier Province 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 ...

and was the first ever legislative member of the Parliament from Buner. He moved to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

to pursue his

LLB degree Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Ch ...

at the

University of Wolverhampton The University of Wolverhampton is a public university located on four campuses across the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, Shropshire and Staffordshire in England. The roots of the university lie in the Wolverhampton Tradesmen's and Mech ...

in 1997. He was then called to the Bar of England and Wales by the

Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincol ...

in 2001. He also obtained his LLM degree at the

University of Washington School of Law The University of Washington School of Law is the law school of the University of Washington, located on the northwest corner of the main campus in Seattle, Washington. The 2023 '' U.S. News & World Report'' law school rankings place Washingt ...

in 2004.

Political career

He ran for 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 NA-28 Buner as a candidate of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) in the

, but was unsuccessful. He received 27,532 votes and was defeated by

Abdul Matin Khan Abdul Matin Khan (1944 – October 30, 2008) was a Pakistani politician and member of the Awami National Party. Khan was born in Buner in 1944 and graduated from Jahanzeb College, Saidu Sharif, Swat in 1967. He completed his masters in history at ...

, a candidate of the

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). On 3 July 2022, he joined the

(PTI) in the presence of

Pervez Khattak Pervez Khan Khattak ( ur, ; ps, پروېز خان خټک; born 1 January 1950) is a Pakistani politician and a member of PTI who served as the Defence Minister of Pakistan from 20 August 2018 until the dissolution of National Assembly on 3 ...

, and

Asad Qaiser Asad Qaiser ( ur, ; born 15 November 1969) is a Pakistani politician. He is the former Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan, served from August 2018 to April 2022. He has been a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan, since Augu ...

. On 15 July 2023, he was appointed as the Chief Election Commissioner of the PTI. He held this position till he resigned on 30 November 2023 due to his nomination for the party's chairmanship. On 2 December 2023, he was elected to the chairmanship of the PTI. Imran Khan, the previous chairman, decided not to contest due to legal troubles in the Toshakhana reference case. On 22 December 2023, he was removed from chairmanship of the PTI due to the party's intra-party elections being declared null and void by Election Commission of Pakistan. However, the order of his removal was suspended by

Peshawar High Court The Peshawar High Court ( ur, ) is the highest judicial institution of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. It is located in the provincial capital Peshawar. The Parliament passed a bill extending the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court (SC) and the Peshawar High ...

on 26 December 2023. On 22 February 2024, it was announced by Gohar himself that new elections would be held for the post on March 3, with Barrister Ali Zafar as Gohar's nominee for the post. However, Ali Zafar did not accept the nomination and thus Gohar filed to re-contest the chairmanship elections as he had been nominated by Imran Khan. Three more candidates filed nomination forms to contest. One nomination form was rejected while the other two were accepted. The two candidates, one from Karachi and the other one from Balochsitan withdrew their candidature. Therefore Gohar was announced by the Returning Officer as 'elected unopposed'. The date for official declaration of the result is March 03, 2024.

Legal career

Associated with the law firm Aitzaz Ahsan and Associates, he started his legal career in Pakistan under the guidance of renowned lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan. He achieved a significant milestone in his legal career when he became involved in the

in 2007. He also assisted in the case of the restoration of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhmmad Chaudhry. After joining the PTI, he fought several cases for the party, such as the

PTI foreign funding case The PTI foreign funding case is a case against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf where it obtained funds from Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, overseas Pakistanis and their companies. One of those overseas Pakistanis being the well known Pakistani ...

, and Imran Khan's contempt of the Election Commission of Pakistan case. Khan also has experience in civil and criminal trials, and he has appeared before the

Supreme Judicial Council Supreme may refer to: Entertainment * Supreme (character), a comic book superhero * ''Supreme'' (film), a 2016 Telugu film * Supreme (producer), hip-hop record producer * "Supreme" (song), a 2000 song by Robbie Williams * The Supremes, Motown-e ...

, the Field General Court Martial, and its Court of Appeals.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Khan, Gohar Ali 1978 births People from Buner District People from Islamabad Living people 21st-century Pakistani lawyers Pakistani barristers Pakistani democracy activists Pakistani activists Pakistani MNAs 2024–2029