Mian Raza Rabbani ( Punjabi,

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Pakistani politician who served as the 7th

Chairman of the Senate of Pakistan The Chairman of the Senate of Pakistan ( ur, ), is the president-chair of the Senate of Pakistan.Sindh Province Sindh (; ; ur, , ; historically romanized as Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest province ...

. He was a close aide to Benazir Bhutto who had appointed him the party's deputy secretary general in 1997 and leader of the opposition in the Senate in 2005. Rabbani has served as Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination, Minister of State for Law and Justice, and Leader of the House and Opposition in the Senate. Raza Rabbani was unanimously elected as the Chairman of the Senate of Pakistan in March 2015.

Early life and education

Rabbani was born on 23 July 1953 in

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city ...

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 ...

in a well educated

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. He spent his childhood in

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...

. Rabbani received his early education from

Habib Public School Habib Public School is a school based in Karachi. It is situated in Sultanabad, M.T Khan road, Karachi, Pakistan. Admission Every year test for admission take place for class 1 and other classes as per the seats available. Thousands of students t ...

in Karachi. He received his BA and LLB. (Bachelor of Law) degrees from the

University of Karachi The University of Karachi ( sd, ; informally Karachi University, KU, or UoK) is a public research university located in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. Established in June 1951 by an act of Parliament and as a successor to the University of Sindh (wh ...

in 1976 and 1981, respectively. Rabbani was politically active during his university years at the University of Karachi and was head of the Liberal Students Federation in 1974. He is said to have affiliated with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) since 1968. He was in jail during the rule of Zia u Haque. when he received his LLB. degree in 1981. He started practising law after the completion of his studies.

Political career

Rabbani started his political career through PPP in 1981. He served as an Advisor, Chief Minister of Sindh, for Co-operative from 1988 to 1990. He was elected to the

Senate of Pakistan Senate of Pakistan or Aiwān-e-Bālā Pākistān ( ur, , , literally "Pakistan upper house"), is the upper house, upper legislative chamber of the bicameral legislature of Pakistan, and together with the National Assembly (Pakistan), National As ...

for the first time in 1993 where he served until 1999. He was inducted into the federal cabinet in 1994 and appointed as the Minister of State for Law and Justice during the second government of Benazir Bhutto where he served until 1996. In 1996, he became the Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate. In 1997, he was appointed as the deputy secretary general of PPP by Benazir Bhutto. He was re-elected to the Senate in 2003 for three years. He was re-elected to the Senate in 2006 for a six-year term. He remained Leader of the Opposition in the Senate from 2005 to 2008. After the victory of the PPP in the 2008 Pakistani general elections, he refused to join the federal cabinet of Yousaf Raza Gillani due to his reluctance to take oath from then president of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf. He served as the Leader of the House in the Senate from 2008 to 2009. After the resignation of then President Pervez Musharraf, on 3 November 2008, Rabbani was inducted into the federal cabinet with the rank of federal minister and appointed as Advisor to the Prime Minister on Inter-Provincial Coordination where he served until 9 March 2009 when he resigned because of the decision of PPP to nominate

Farooq Naek Farooq Hamid Naek ( ur, ; b. 1 July 1947 also spelled Farooq H. Naik), is a Pakistani politician and lawyer, who served as the Chairman Senate, Minister of Law as well as headed the Ministry of Justice in the government led by Prime Minist ...

as chairman of the Senate. In 2011, he was again inducted into the federal cabinet with the rank of federal minister and appointed as the Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination and Human Rights where he briefly served from February 2011 until his resignation in May 2011. Later he went on to serve as the chairman of the parliamentary committee for constitutional reform and chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security. He was re-elected to the Senate in 2012 for a six-year term. After the PPP lost the 2013 general election, he was made additional secretary general of PPP by Zardari. In July 2013, he was nominated as PPP candidate for presidential office. PPP later announced their decision to boycott the presidential elections citing the decision of the Supreme Court. Rabbani was awarded Nishan-e-Imtiaz for his parliamentary services. Raza Rabbani was the acting President of Pakistan from 12 March 2015 – 26 March 2015, when President

Mamnoon Hussain Mamnoon Hussain ( ur, ; 22 December 1941 – 14 July 2021) was a Pakistani politician and industrialist who served as the 12th president of Pakistan from 2013 to 2018. He was first appointed Governor of Sindh in June 1999 by President Rafiq ...

went abroad for medical treatment.

Acting President of Pakistan

Raza Rabbani was the acting President of Pakistan from 12 March 2015 – 26 March 2015, when President

went abroad for medical treatment.

Inter Parliamentary Union

Rabbani was elected as an executive member in the Inter Parliamentary Union in October 2019 as a candidature of

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

leader

Shashi Tharoor Shashi Tharoor (; ; born 9 March 1956 in London, England ) is an Indian former international civil servant, diplomat, bureaucrat and politician, writer and public intellectual who has been serving as Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram, ...

. The candidacy was withdrawn by the

BJP The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mo ...

-led

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n Government.

Views on national security

Despite his disagreements with PPP's leadership, Senator Rabbani was named by the President to be the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security and the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reform in 2008. His services and credentials led to his simultaneous appointment to the chairmanship of the Beginning of the Rights of Balochistan where he worked on presenting a package to redress the problems of the

Balochistan Province Balochistan (; bal, بلۏچستان; ) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southwestern region of the country, Balochistan is the largest province of Pakistan by land area but is the least populated one. It shares land ...

to the joint sessions of the

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

. Despite his recommendations, none of the provisions in the packages would be carried out by Prime Minister

Yousaf Raza Gillani Yusuf Raza Gilani ( Urdu: ; born 9 June 1952), is a Pakistani politician who served as 18th Prime Minister of Pakistan from 25 March 2008, until his retroactive disqualification and ouster by the Supreme Court of Pakistan on 26 April 2012. ...

who would later entangle with the Supreme Court over the

missing persons A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, de ...

scandal. In 2003, Rabbani demonstrated his opposition to the

Iraq war {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق ( Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict and the War on terror , image ...

in 2003, over the issue of its nuclear program. About the

atomic proliferation Nuclear proliferation is the spread of nuclear weapons, fissionable material, and weapons-applicable nuclear technology and information to nations not recognized as " Nuclear Weapon States" by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Wea ...

issues, Rabbani criticised

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

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 ...

in the

news channels News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or televi ...

and publicly supported the case of Dr. AQ Khan against President Musharraf. While calling for moral responsibility of nuclear weapons and security, he reportedly marked his words over this issue as the " propaganda against Pakistan in the

Western Media Western media is the mass media of the Western world. During the Cold War, Western media contrasted with Soviet media. Western media has gradually expanded into developing countries (often, non-Western countries) around the world. History Th ...

about terrorism and nuclear weapons, raising legitimate apprehensions in the minds of Pakistanis." During the height of the United States-Pakistan border confrontations, Rabbani declared to the media about the shift-changing policy of Pakistan as the United States' ally and quoted: "We need to prioritize our own national-security interests. As far as the U.S. is concerned, the message that has gone with this resolution will definitely ring alarm bells, ''

vis-à-vis Vis-à-vis may refer to: * Vis-à-vis, a French expression in English, literally "face to face (with)", meaning in comparison with or in relation to * ''Vis-à-vis'' (album), by Karol Mikloš, 2002 * Vis-à-vis (carriage), a type of horse-drawn ...

'' their policy of bulldozing Pakistan." In April 2011, Rabbani also heavily criticized the US over their drone operations in North-Western Pakistan in the Parliament, commenting that the United States is following a major violation of

international law International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...

and human rights.

Writings and political philosophy

Rabbani has written in support of socialism, communism, constitutional justice, and left-wing ideas. In 2003, he authored a book, "''LFO: a fraud on the Constitution''", in a direct opposition to

and a scheme of legitimising his rule. In response to the

insurgency An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion against authority waged by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare from primarily rural base areas. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric nature: small irr ...

situation in the country, Rabbani reputedly declared that " Politico-religious parties and right-wing political groups are conniving with the establishment to damage and weaken left-wing parties." His statement came during the 2013

general elections A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

, in which left-wing parties were under immense pressure from the right-wing insurgent groups to limit their political campaigns. Rabbani later accused the international community of supporting the conservative parties in opposition to the leftist parties. While accusing former president Parvez Musharraf of supporting the ultra-conservative alliance to curb the left-wing parties, Rabbani, with another Marxist

Taj Haider Taj Haider, SI (Urdu: تاج حيدر; born 8 March 1942) is a left-wing politician, nationalist, playwright, mathematician, versatile scholar, and Marxist intellectual. He is one of the founding members of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and ...

, accused the

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

and the United States of supporting right wing parties for their bid in the elections.

Writings

He is the author of the following books: * * * *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rabbani, Raza 1953 births Living people Pakistan People's Party politicians Pakistani lawyers Pakistani MNAs 1988–1990 Politicians from Lahore Punjabi people University of Karachi alumni Chairmen of the Senate of Pakistan Pakistani senators (14th Parliament)