Ijaz Ahmed Shah is a Pakistani politician, former

military officer An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer (NCO), or a warrant officer. However, absent c ...

and

spy Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ''e ...

.Profile of Saeed Sheikh
, under 5 February 2002 He was serving as the Federal Minister for Narcotics Control, was in office since 11 December 2020. Previously, he served as the Federal Minister for interior from April 2019 to 11 December 2020 and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs from March 2019 to April 2019. He was a member of 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 August 2018 till July 2022. He is commonly known as the founder of district Nankana Sahib.

Military career

Shah was a long-term close associate of President

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 ...

, and was Director of the

Inter-Services Intelligence The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is the premier Pakistani Intelligence community, intelligence agency of Pakistan. It is responsible for gathering, processing, and analyzing any information from around the world that is deemed relevant t ...

(ISI) Punjab during Musharraf's 1999 coup. Musharraf appointed Shah as

Director-General A director general, general director or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''general directors'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals'') is a senior executive officer, often the chief executive officer ...

of Intelligence Bureau of

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

from 2004 to 2008. Shah's tenure as the head of Intelligence Bureau was controversial with accusations of political

victimisation Victimisation ( or victimization) is the state or process of being victimised or becoming a victim. The field that studies the process, rates, incidence, effects, and prevalence of victimisation is called victimology. Peer victimisation Peer ...

and for undermining the judiciary.

Alleged involvement in Benazir Bhutto's assassination plot

According to the PPP Senator Latif Khosa, days after the 2007 Karachi bombings,

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 ...

in a letter to President Musharaf written on 16 October 2007 allegedly named Ijaz Shah as one of the four persons including the then chief minister of Punjab

Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi Chaudhry Parvez Elahi Warraich (Urdu, ; born 1 November 1945) is a Pakistani politician who was the Chief Minister of Punjab from late 2002 to late 2007 and again from late 2022 to early 2023. He was a member of the Provincial Assembly of ...

, the then chief minister of Sindh

Arbab Ghulam Rahim Arbab Ghulam Rahim (; born 1 January 1957) is a senior Pakistani politician who served as the Chief Minister of the Government of Sindh from 2004 until 2007. After that he also served as a special minister to Imran Khan on matters of Sindh fro ...

, and the former ISI chief

Hamid Gul Hamid Gul (20 November 1936 – 15 August 2015) was a Pakistani military officer and defence analyst. A three-star general, Gul was notable for serving as the Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's premier inte ...

she suspected were behind the attacks.

Osama bin Laden compound

General Ziauddin Butt, former Director General of the ISI allegedly revealed in October 2011 that according to his knowledge Ijaz Shah, had kept

Osama bin Laden Osama bin Laden (10 March 19572 May 2011) was a militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda. Ideologically a pan-Islamist, Bin Laden participated in the Afghan ''mujahideen'' against the Soviet Union, and support ...

in an Intelligence Bureau of

safe house in

Abbottabad Abbottabad is a city in the Hazara Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan. It is the 40th largest city in the country and 6th largest in the province by population, and serves as the headquarter of its namesake tehsil and district ...

but later denied making any such statement, after Shah announced filing a defamation suit against him.

Political career

Shah has served as the Home Secretary of Punjab in 2002. During his tenure, he was accused of the formation of the PML-Q and PPP-Patriots. In 2004, he was appointed as the Pakistani High Commissioner to Australia but was rejected by Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs. He ran for the seat of the

from NA-118 (Nankana Sahib-II) as an independent candidate in the

2013 Pakistani general election General elections were held in Pakistan on Saturday 11 May 2013 to elect the members of the List of members of the 14th National Assembly of Pakistan, 14th National Assembly of Pakistan, National Assembly and the four Subdivisions of Pakistan, Pr ...

, but was unsuccessful. He again ran for the seat of the

from NA-118 (Nankana Sahib-II) as an independent candidate, with support 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. ...

(PTI), in the 2015 by-elections, but was again unsuccessful. He lost to Shizra Mansab Ali Khan. He was elected to the

from NA-118 (Nankana Sahib-II) as a candidate of PTI in the

2018 Pakistani general election General elections were held in Pakistan on 25 July 2018 to elect the members of the 15th National Assembly and the four Provincial Assemblies. The three major parties were Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), led by Imran Khan, the Pakistan Muslim ...

. He received 63,818 votes and defeated Shezra Mansab Ali of

Pakistan Muslim League (N) The Pakistan Muslim League (N) or (PML(N)) is a Centre-right politics, centre-right, Conservatism in Pakistan, conservative political party in Pakistan. It is currently the third-largest party in the Senate of Pakistan, Senate and the larges ...

. In March 2019, he was made the Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs which he held till 16 April 2019. On 18 April 2019, in a cabinet reshuffle, he was sworn in as Federal Interior Minister of Pakistan, the post previously held by

Shehryar Khan Afridi Shehryar Khan Afridi (; born 12 March 1971) is a Pakistani politician who served as Chairperson of the Parliamentary Special Committee on Kashmir, in office from 13 May 2020 to April 2022. He served as the Minister of State for Interior from 31 ...

. On 10 April 2022, because of the motion of no confidence, he resigned from the National Assembly on the orders of

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 ...

. The new government did not accept the resignations of many members for fear of deteriorating the number of members. However, accepting the resignations of eleven members on 28 July 2022, one of them was Ijaz Ahmed Shah. Later, by-elections were held again on his seat, Imran Khan made a surprising move to stand on his own in all the by-seats.

Family

His younger brothers, pir Mumtaz Ahmed Shah (pappu Shah) and Pir Tariq Ahmed Shah, who was elected president of the Nankana District Bar Association, both died in 2020, the former in July and the latter in August.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shah, Ijaz Living people Pakistani spies Pakistan Army brigadiers Pakistani MNAs 2018–2023 Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MNAs Federal ministers of Pakistan Punjab Regiment officers People of Inter-Services Intelligence Directors general of the Intelligence Bureau (Pakistan) Year of birth missing (living people) Imran Khan administration