Hamid Yar Hiraj is a Pakistani politician who 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 2002 to 2013. He also served as Member of the

Provincial Assembly of the Punjab The Provincial Assembly of the Punjab is a unicameral legislature of elected representatives of the Pakistani provinces, Pakistani province of Punjab (Pakistan), Punjab, which is located in Lahore, the provincial capital. It was established under ...

from August 2018 to January 2023.

Early life and education

He was born on 10 December 1972. He received his BSc and MSc degrees from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

in 1995 and an MA degree in legal studies from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

USA in 1999.

Political career

He was elected to the

from Constituency NA-157 (Khanewal-II) as an independent candidate in 2002 Pakistani general election. He received 74,905 votes and defeated Rizwan Ahmad Khan Daha, a candidate of

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 ...

(PML-N). In November 2002, he was inducted into the federal cabinet of Prime Minister

Mir 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 ...

and was appointed as Minister of State for Health where he continued to serve until June 2004. In June 2004, he was inducted into the federal cabinet of Prime Minister

Shaukat Aziz Shaukat Aziz ( ur, ; born 6 March 1949) is a Pakistani former banker and financier who served as 17th prime minister of Pakistan from 28 August 2004 to 15 November 2007, as well as the finance minister of Pakistan from 6 November 1999 to 15 ...

and was appointed as Minister of State for Commerce and Trade where he served until the completion of the government's tenure in November 2007. He was re-elected to the National Assembly from Constituency NA-157 (Khanewal-II) as a candidate of

Pakistan Muslim League (Q) The Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid e Azam Group) ur, ; ''Pākistān Muslim Līg (Qāf)'', Acronyms: PML(Q), PML-Q, PMLQ, "Q League") is a Conservative nationalist political party in Pakistan. As of the 2018 parliamentary election, it has a re ...

(PML-Q) 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 ...

. He received 58,819 votes and defeated PMLN-N candidate

Muhammad Khan Daha Muhammad Khan Daha (; born 1 August 1970) is a Pakistani politician who has been a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan since February 2024 and previously served in this position from August 2018 till August 2023 and from June 2013 to May ...

. On 22 November 2010, Sardar Hamid Yar Hiraj was appointed as a Federal Minister, Chairman Earthquake Reconstruction & Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA), by Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani. He served at the post until the completion of the government's tenure in March 2013. He ran for the seat of the National Assembly from Constituency NA-157 (Khanewal-II) as a candidate of (PML-Q) 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 ...

but was unsuccessful. He received 65,407 votes and lost the seat to Muhammad Khan Daha. After the 2013 general election, he quit PML-Q and later joined

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 ...

on 20 October 2016. He was elected as a member of the

as a candidate of

(PTI) from Constituency PP-205 (Khanewal-III) 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 ...

. He received 57,203 votes and defeated PML-N candidate Ch Fazal ur Rehman.

References

Living people Pakistani MNAs 2002–2007 Pakistani MNAs 2008–2013 Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MPAs (Punjab) Punjab MPAs 2018–2023 1973 births University of Pennsylvania alumni Columbia University alumni Pakistan Muslim League (Q) MNAs Pakistani emigrants to Canada Naturalized citizens of Canada {{PunjabPK-MPA-stub