Sardar Asif Ahmad Ali Daula (21 October 1940 – 19 May 2022) was a Pakistani politician who served as the 18th Foreign Minister of Pakistan from 1993 to 1996. He was a senior member of

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is a political party in Pakistan established in 1996 by cricketer and politician Imran Khan, who served as the country's prime minister from 2018 to 2022. The party is led by Gohar Ali Khan since late 2023. ...

and

Pakistan Peoples Party The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) is a political party in Pakistan and one of the three major List of political parties in Pakistan, Pakistani political parties alongside the Pakistan Muslim League (N) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. With a Cent ...

. On 25 December 2011, he joined PTI but resigned when party awarded Khurshid Kasuri National Assembly ticket instead of him. He was elected to the

National Assembly of Pakistan The National Assembly of Pakistan, also referred to as ''Aiwān-ē-Zairīñ'', is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Pakistan, with the upper house being the Senate of Pakistan, Senate. As of 2023, the National Assem ...

from

Kasur Kasur (Punjabi language, Punjabi / ; ; also Romanization, romanized as Qasūr; from pluralized Arabic word ''Qasr'' meaning "palaces" or "forts") is a city to the south of Lahore, in the Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. The city s ...

in 1994 and again in 2008 by an impressive margin of ten thousand votes. He has also served as the Minister for Education and Federal Minister of Information Technology and Telecommunication between 2008 and 2010. He rejoined Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf on 10 November 2017 during a press conference with

Imran Khan Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi (born 5 October 1952) is a Pakistani politician, philanthropist, and former cricketer who served as the 19th prime minister of Pakistan from August 2018 until April 2022. He was the founder of the political party Pak ...

in Lahore.

Career

Sardar Aseff Ahmad Ali was a senior member of the

. He was the foreign minister of Pakistan in the cabinet of

Benazir Bhutto Benazir Bhutto (21 June 1953 – 27 December 2007) was a Pakistani politician who served as the 11th prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990, and again from 1993 to 1996. She was also the first woman elected to head a democratic governmen ...

during her second tenure as

Prime Minister A prime minister 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. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Minister of Economic Affairs

Sardar Aseff also served as the Minister for Economic Affairs during the 1991–1993

Nawaz Sharif Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif (born 25 December 1949) is a Pakistani politician and businessman who served as the 12th Prime Minister of Pakistan, prime minister of Pakistan for three non-consecutive terms, first serving from 1990 to 1993, then ...

government, but resigned from the cabinet after developing differences with the Prime Minister. His resignation along with those of other members of parliament eventually led to overthrow of the first Nawaz Sharif government. While serving as the Economic Affairs Minister, Sardar Aseff led numerous delegations of Pakistani civil society members and organisations to Russia and cultivated business and diplomatic relationships with various disintegrated states of the former

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. He was awarded honorary citizenship of

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

and

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan, officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia lying in the Tian Shan and Pamir Mountains, Pamir mountain ranges. Bishkek is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Kyrgyzstan, largest city. Kyrgyz ...

Foreign Minister of Pakistan

As Foreign Minister of Pakistan, he was unanimously elected chairman of the

Organisation of the Islamic Conference The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC; ; ), formerly the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, is an intergovernmental organisation founded in 1969. It consists of 57 member states, 48 of which are Muslim-majority. The Pew Forum on ...

. In 2003, he held a painting exhibition at Lahore, where he displayed some of his hand-drawn sketches and paintings, which was attended by then-Prime Minister

Zafarullah Khan Jamali Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali (1 January 1944 – 2 December 2020) was a Pakistani politician who served as the 13th prime minister of Pakistan from 2002 to 2004. He was the first and only elected prime minister from Balochistan, Pakistan. Born int ...

. In the recently held general elections, he was returned to the National Assembly for the fifth time after defeating his archrival, the outgoing foreign minister

Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri (Urdu: خورشيد محمود قصورى; born 18 June 1941) is a Pakistani politician and writer who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan between November 2002 until November 2007. He is the Senior Advi ...

Later career

In 2017 he resigned from

and joined Party of

former cricketer

. He opposed

Pervez Musharraf Pervez Musharraf (11 August 1943 – 5 February 2023) was a Pakistani general and politician who served as the tenth president of Pakistan from 2001 to 2008. Prior to his career in politics, he was a four-star general and appointed as ...

's firing of Pakistan's judiciary.

Personal life

Family background

Sardar Aseff Ahmed Ali belonged to a principal landholding

Arain Arain (also known as Raeen) are a large Punjabi Muslim agricultural community with a strong political identity and level of organisation. At the beginning of the last century, they numbered around 1 million and were mainly rural cultivator ...

family of the

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

region whose role in politics, in this region precedes the

British rule in India The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

. The family has a reputation of repelling authority and was instrumental in fighting against the Sikhs and later the British. His uncle Sardar Muhammad Hussain remained a member of parliament pre and post partition and pioneered the advent of Pakistan Muslim League in central Punjab region. His father Sardar Ahmad Ali (politician) who also remained a member of parliament throughout his career, and Sardar Muhammad Hussain led regional movements against the Unionist Party led by wealthy Zamindars and patronized by the British.

Education

He studied at Lawrence College in Ghora Gali. He earned a B.A. (Hons.) degree from

Government College University, Lahore The Government College University (colloquially known as GCU; Punjabi, Urdu: ) is a public research university in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. Founded as Government College, Lahore, in 1864 under British administration, it became a university i ...

(1959–62), and a B.A. (Hons.) degree from

St John's College, Oxford St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its foun ...

(1963–1966).

Death

Daula died on the evening of 19 May 2022. He had been receiving treatment for a heart condition in a Lahore hospital, and suffered a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

References

External links

DAWN Hot Seat: Sardar Aseff Ahmad Ali
{{DEFAULTSORT:Daula, Aseff Ahmad 1940 births 2022 deaths Ministers for foreign affairs of Pakistan Government College University, Lahore alumni Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf politicians Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Lawrence College Ghora Gali alumni Pakistani MNAs 1990–1993 Pakistani MNAs 2008–2013 People from Kasur District