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Shahid Khaqan Abbasi
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi
Born	1958;

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi (Urdu: شاہد خاقان عباسی) (born 27 December 1958) is a Pakistani businessman and politician. He served as the Federal Minister for Commerce in 2008.^[1] Abbasi is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Pakistan Airline Airblue.^[2] He also served as Chairman of Pakistan International Airlines from 1997 to 1999.

Abbasi got his early education from Lawrence College, Murree. He then attended the University of California, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering. He went on to obtain Masters in Engineering from George Washington University, Washington, D.C. Abbasi worked as a professional Engineer in the United States and the Middle East during the 1980s.

He is politically affiliated with the centre-right party PML-N, where he is a senior leader. He is the son of Air Commodore (retd) Khaqan Abbasi, a prominent businessman turned politician who was a pilot in the Pakistan Air Force and the Federal Minister for Industries and Production in General Zia-ul-Haq’s cabinet in the 1980s. Khaqan was a serving MNA and Federal Minister in Zia-ul-Haq’s cabinet when he died in the Ojhri Camp incident in 1988. His son Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has built the Murree-Kahuta area as their political stronghold and has never lost an election since. He won the general elections in 1988, 1990, 1993, and 1997, the latest one being in 2008. From 1990 to 1993, he performed his duties as the chairman of National Assembly Standing Committee on Defence.

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was imprisoned by the General Pervez Musharraf government, as he was the Chairman of the PIA, when Musharraf's plane was denied landing at the Jinnah International Airport, Karachi on his way back from Sri Lanka on October 12, 1999. The government put pressure on him to give a testimony against the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, but Abbasi refused. He was imprisoned for around two years before being acquitted of all charges in March 2001.

In the 2008 general elections, Shahid Abbasi was again elected a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from the traditional Abbasi constituency of NA-50 Rawalpindi-I (Murree-Kahuta area). He was then made the Federal Minister of Commerce in the Yousaf Raza Gillani cabinet.

[edit] References

^ Sajjad Malik, "24-member federal cabinet takes oath" Daily Times, April 01, 2008
^ Saad Hasan, "AirBlue growth beats PIA on domestic routes" The News, January 8, 2008

[edit] External links

[0] Sajjad Malik, "24-member federal cabinet takes oath" Daily Times, April 01, 2008

[1] Saad Hasan, "AirBlue growth beats PIA on domestic routes" The News, January 8, 2008

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