Zulfiqar Mirza (

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

who is currently affiliated with the

Grand Democratic Alliance The Grand Democratic Alliance ( ur, گرانڈ جمہوری اتحاد) or GDA is a political alliance in Pakistan. It was founded on 23 October 2017 as a political movement, movement against the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government in the Sind ...

(GDA). He is from

Badin District The Badin District ( sd, ضلعو بدين, ur, ) is a district in the Sindh province of Pakistan. The total area of the district is 6,726 square kilometers.

Sindh 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 ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

Early life and education

He acquired his early education from Cadet College Petaro, Muslim College

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

, and Cantt College Hyderabad, and completed his

MBBS Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery ( la, Medicinae Baccalaureus, Baccalaureus Chirurgiae; abbreviated most commonly MBBS), is the primary medical degree awarded by medical schools in countries that follow the tradition of the United King ...

from

Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences The Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) ( sd, لياقت يونيورسٽي آف ميڊيڪل اينڊ هيلٿ سائنسز) is a public medical university located in Jamshoro, Sindh, Pakistan. Ever since it started as a ...

in 1980. He enlisted in the

Pakistan Army Medical Corps The Pakistan Army Medical Corps, Urdu: ﺁرمى مڈيكل كور; ''Army Medical Corps'', abbreviated as the AMC and popularly known as Medical Corps, is a military administrative combatant staff corps, and a primary military medical comman ...

as a captain. He received his training from the

Pakistan Military Academy Pakistan Military Academy ( ur, ), also referred to by its acronym PMA. PMA is an officers training school located near Kakul village in the city and district of Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa established in 1947. It is the sole service academy ...

, and later joined

Pakistan Navy ur, ہمارے لیے اللّٰہ کافی ہے اور وہ بہترین کارساز ہے۔ English language, English: Allah is Sufficient for us - and what an excellent (reliable) Trustee (of affairs) is He!(''Quran, Qur'an, Al Imran, 3:173' ...

. He was discharged from the armed forces in 1985 for refusing to vote in the

1984 Pakistani Islamisation programme referendum A referendum on the Islamisation policy of President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq was held in Pakistan on 19 December 1984. Voters were asked whether they supported Zia-ul-Haq's proposals for amending several laws in accordance with the Quran and Sunnah, ...

. Till 1989, he worked for the

Pakistan International Airlines Pakistan International Airlines ( ur, ; abbreviated PIA, ur, ) is an international airline that serves as the national flag carrier of Pakistan under the administrative control of the Secretary to the Government of Pakistan for Aviation. It ...

. Mirza arrived in Badin in the early 1980s for business purposes. He set up his

sugar mill A sugar cane mill is a factory that processes sugar cane to produce raw or white sugar. The term is also used to refer to the equipment that crushes the sticks of sugar cane to extract the juice. Processing There are a number of steps in pro ...

in 1989 there with the help of his childhood friend

Asif Ali Zardari Asif Ali Zardari ( ur, ; sd, ; born 26 July 1955) is a Pakistani politician who is the president of Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians and was the co-chairperson of Pakistan People's Party. He served as the 11th president of Pakistan ...

, who was the husband of the then-

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Benazir Bhutto Benazir Bhutto ( ur, بینظیر بُھٹو; sd, بينظير ڀُٽو; Urdu ; 21 June 1953 – 27 December 2007) was a Pakistani politician who served as the 11th and 13th prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 t ...

, after which he decided to settle in the area.

Career

He contested the

1993 Pakistani general election General elections were held in Pakistan on 6 October 1993 to elect the members of National Assembly. The elections took place after both the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and President Ghulam Ishaq Khan resigned to resolve a power struggle. Prior ...

and became a Member of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

after defeating

Murtaza Bhutto Ghulam Murtaza Bhutto (; 18 September 1954 – 20 September 1996) was a Pakistani politician and leader of al-Zulfiqar, a Pakistani left-wing militant organization. The son of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, he earne ...

from the NA-172 Badin-II (now NA-230 Badin-II) constituency. His influence helped

Pakistan Peoples Party The Pakistan People's Party ( ur, , ; PPP) is a centre-left, social-democratic political party in Pakistan. It is currently the third largest party in the National Assembly and second largest in the Senate of Pakistan. The party was founded ...

to win several elections from Badin over the next several years. He served as the Parliamentary Secretary Commerce, and was a member of the Kashmir Committee, Overseas Pakistan Foundation, the accountability committee, and the International Medical Parliamentarians Association. He also served as the director of the

Pakistan Medical and Dental Council Pakistan Medical Commission is a statutory regulatory authority that maintains the official register of medical practitioners in Pakistan. Its chief function is to establish uniform minimum standards of basic and higher qualifications in medicin ...

. Due to several cases against him, he spent 12 years away from the public eye during which his wife,

Fahmida Mirza Fahmida Mirza ( ur, ; born 20 December 1956) is a Pakistani politician who was Federal Minister for Inter Provincial Coordination, in office from 20 August 2018 until 10 April 2022. She served as the 18th and only women Speaker of the National ...

, took over his political career in Badin, winning National Assembly seats in

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, and

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

. Mirza was the Home Minister of Sindh as part of the Pakistan Peoples Party provincial government till June 2011, when he resigned . Mirza was assigned the portfolio of Jails and Prisons, as well as the portfolio of Senior Minister for Works, Services and Forest in the

cabinet. He remained a member of the

Provincial Assembly of Sindh The Provincial Assembly of Sindh ( ur, ) is a unicameral legislature of elected representatives of the Pakistani province of Sindh, and is located in Karachi, the provincial capital. It was established under Article 106 of the Constitution of ...

, and a member of the PPP Central Executive Committee, and Vice President of PPP (Sindh) till 28 August 2011. He was suspended from the committee in 2015. He is also a member of the board of directors of Mirza Sugar Mills located in

Badin District The Badin District ( sd, ضلعو بدين, ur, ) is a district in the Sindh province of Pakistan. The total area of the district is 6,726 square kilometers.

, Sindh.

Allegations against MQM

In November 2011, Mirza left for London carrying documents he claimed contained evidence against Altaf Hussain and the

Muttahida Qaumi Movement Muttahida Qaumi Movement (abbreviated MQM) is a name currently claimed by two competing Pakistani political factions: * Muttahida Qaumi Movement – London, a political faction managed from the UK * Muttahida Qaumi Movement – Pakistan Muttah ...

(MQM) with regards the murder of

Imran Farooq Imran Farooq ( ur, ; 14 June 1960 – 16 September 2010) was a British-Pakistani politician who was best known for his association with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), a political party in Pakistan, of which he was a very senior member. H ...

. Mirza presented the evidence to the

Scotland Yard Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's 32 boroughs, but not the City of London, the square mile that forms London's ...

on 17 November 2011.

Fight against corruption

Zulfiqar Mirza has said that the political gathering of the

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 ...

led

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 ...

was an indicator of change in Pakistan and thousands of PPP workers, loyal to

and

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Zulfikar (or Zulfiqar) Ali Bhutto ( ur, , sd, ذوالفقار علي ڀٽو; 5 January 1928 – 4 April 1979), also known as Quaid-e-Awam ("the People's Leader"), was a Pakistani barrister, politician and statesman who served as the fourth ...

, along with

Shah Mehmood Qureshi Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Hussain Qureshi ( ur, ; born 22 June 1956) is a Pakistani politician who served as the 29th Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2018 to 2022. He previously held the post from 2008 to 2011. He has been a member of the Nationa ...

would come out on the streets for a change too. Mirza said that he was still a PPP worker and vowed to fight against corrupt ministers and cliques in the party. However, Mirza's wife,

has also been declared a loan defaulter by the

State Bank of Pakistan The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) ( ur, ) is the Central Bank of Pakistan. Its Constitution, as originally laid down in the State Bank of Pakistan Order 1948, remained basically unchanged until 1 January 1974, when the bank was Nationalized and ...

Personal life

Zulfiqar married

in 1982, who was elected as the first female

Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** I ...

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 ...

on 19 March 2008. She is also the first female parliamentary speaker in the

Muslim world The terms Muslim world and Islamic world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is practiced. I ...

. He has two sons and two daughters. He is the father of Member of National Assembly,

Hasnain Mirza Hasnain Ali Mirza ( ur, ) (born 29 May 1983), is a Pakistani lawyer and barrister who is elected as Member of the Provincial Assembly (MPA). He is the son of Zulfiqar Mirza and federal minister Fahmida Mirza. He is the grandson (through father) o ...

References

External links

Zulfiqar Mirza's Web Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mirza, Zulfiqar Living people Pakistan People's Party politicians Pakistani Shia Muslims Sindhi people Cadet College Petaro alumni 1954 births Z