Mr. Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao

Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, a veteran Pakistani politician, is a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan and the current Chairman of Pakistan Peoples Party (Sherpao) (PPP-S). He served as the Interior Minister of Pakistan from 2004 to 2007 besides which he has held a number of portfolios in the Federal cabinet including Minister for Water and Power, Minister for Kashmir Affairs & Northern Areas and States & Frontier Regions, Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination, and Minister for Defence Production.

He has served as the chief executive of the North West Frontier Province (now known as the Province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) twice having been elected as the Chief Minister in 1988 and then again in 1994. Prior to this he has also served as a member in the Provincial Cabinet of the NWFP as Minister for Industries, Minerals, Local Government and Rural Development.

In 2007, he was nominated as Chairman of the Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Peace Jirga in Kabul, an initiative to bring together politicians and community leaders to discuss peace and security between the two countries. Mr. Sherpao, being a pioneer advocate of this cause, had the honour of  being the first Chairman of this Jirga.

Since actively entering politics in 1976, Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao has been elected to the National Assembly of Pakistan four times and to the Provincial Assembly of the NWFP seven times from different constituencies. He has also served as Leader of the Opposition in the NWFP Assembly, having been elected to this position on three occasions. In addition to this he has also been nominated by his political party as Parliamentary Leader both in the National Assembly and in the NWFP Provincial Assembly on a number of occasions. He is currently a serving member of the National Assembly of Pakistan.

Having served as Provincial President of the Pakistan Peoples Party for over 20 years and then as the Central Senior Vice Chairman, he is now Chairman of his own faction of the PPP.

Prior to his political career, he has served in the Pakistan Army after having graduated from the Pakistan Military Academy with the 34th Long Course in 1965 and joining the Armoured Corps in the prestigious Probyn’s Horse Regiment. During his brief military career he served in a number of capacities and received distinctions in various courses. Mr. Sherpao has the honour of having served his Country by engaging in active battle in two wars in 1965 and then again in 1971. He ended his service of 12 years prematurely on the request of the then Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto who asked him to join politics.

Mr Sherpao has had at least two attempts on his life by terrorists, both of which were suicide bomb attacks. He narrowly escaped both attempts but they left over 85 people dead and hundreds injured. He also lost his elder brother, the then NWFP Chief Minister, Hayat Muhammad Khan Sherpao to a terrorist bomb in 1973. Hayat Sherpao was a founding leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party and former Governor of the NWFP. His assassination is considered by all in Pakistan as a national tragedy.