Walid Iqbal is a

Pakistani Pakistanis (, ) are the citizens and nationals of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Pakistan is the fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the second-largest Muslim population as of 2023. As much as ...

politician, lawyer,

law professor A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a legal practition ...

, and a member of

Senate of Pakistan The Senate of Pakistan, Constitution of Pakistan, constitutionally the House of the Federation, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Pakistan. As of 2023, It has a maximum membership of 96, of which 92 are elected by the Member of th ...

from

Punjab, Pakistan Punjab (, ) is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. With a population of over 127 million, it is the Demographics of Pakistan, most populous province in Pakistan and the List of first-level administrative divisions by popu ...

and the Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Human Rights. He frequently participates in international conferences, panel discussions, and television talk shows.

Early life and education

Family background

Walid Iqbal is the grandson of poet and politician

Allama Muhammad Iqbal ''Allamah'' () is an Islamic honorary title for a profound scholar, a polymath, a man of vast reading and erudition, or a great learned one. The title is carried by scholars of Islamic fiqh (jurisprudence) and philosophy. It is used as an hon ...

, and the son of philosopher and former Senior Justice Javid Iqbal and judge

Nasira Iqbal Justice Nasira Javid Iqbal () is a Pakistani jurist and law professor who served as a justice of the Lahore High Court from 1994 to 2002. Education and career Nasira Iqbal has a degree in intellectual property law from Punjab University, a ...

. His maternal grandfather Dr Abdul Waheed was a diplomat who represented Pakistan at the

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

and was also the managing director of the Ferozsons publishing house while his maternal grandmother Saeeda Waheed was a

Pakistan Movement The Pakistan Movement was a religiopolitical and social movement that emerged in the early 20th century as part of a campaign that advocated the creation of an Islamic state in parts of what was then British Raj. It was rooted in the two-nation the ...

activist and social worker.

Education

After completing high school at

Aitchison College Aitchison College is an elite private, boarding school, boarding Junior School, Secondary School for boys in Lahore, Pakistan. It has educated Prime Minister of Pakistan, prime ministers, including Imran Khan, Feroz Khan Noon, president of Pakist ...

Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...

, Iqbal went to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and received a bachelor's degree in economics from the

Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania The Wharton School ( ) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia. Established in 1881 through a donation from Joseph Wharton, a co-founder of Bethlehem Steel, the Wharton ...

in 1988. He then studied at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

in 1989 and 1990, earning his

Master of Philosophy A Master of Philosophy (MPhil or PhM; Latin ' or ') is a postgraduate degree. The name of the degree is most often abbreviated MPhil (or, at times, as PhM in other countries). MPhil are awarded to postgraduate students after completing at leas ...

degree in

International Relations International relations (IR, and also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs) is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns al ...

, his thesis being ''

The World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development. The World Bank is the collective name for the Internati ...

’s Changing Relationship with Pakistan 1950–1990''. He also received a

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

degree from the

University of Punjab The University of the Punjab (UoP) is a public research university in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. Founded in 1882, its international influence has made it one of the most prestigious universities in South Asia; being the oldest and largest publ ...

in 1994 and a

Master of Laws A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is a postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in another subject. In many jurisdi ...

degree from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

in 1997.

Professional career

From 1990 to 1994, while studying law, Iqbal worked as a business executive in Pakistan's private sector.

Legal career

Iqbal specialises in

mergers and acquisitions Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...

privatisation Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...

, corporate and project finance (particularly in the power sector),

financial institutions A financial institution, sometimes called a banking institution, is a business entity that provides service as an intermediary for different types of financial monetary transactions. Broadly speaking, there are three major types of financial ins ...

investment management Investment management (sometimes referred to more generally as financial asset management) is the professional asset management of various Security (finance), securities, including shareholdings, Bond (finance), bonds, and other assets, such as r ...

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

s, energy and petroleum, asset finance,

information technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...

, telecommunications and software development, and corporate restructuring. Between 1997 and 2004, he worked for two international law firms,

Sullivan & Cromwell Sullivan & Cromwell LLP is an American multinational law firm headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1879 by Algernon Sydney Sullivan and William Nelson Cromwell, the firm advised on the creation of Edison General Electric and the formation o ...

and

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Freshfields LLP (formerly Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, or FBD) is a British multinational law firm headquartered in London, England, and a member of the so-called " Magic Circle". The firm has 28 offices in 17 jurisdictions across Asia, Europ ...

. In January 2005, he returned to Pakistan and started his own law practice. He is an adjunct professor of business law at the Suleman Dawood School of Business, part of the

Lahore University of Management Sciences Lahore University of Management Sciences, also known by its acronym LUMS, is a Private university, private research university in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab, Pakistan. Founded in 1985, it is ranked as one of the most prestigious modern Li ...

(LUMS). He is a member of the

Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) (), formerly known as Company Law Administration, Company Law Board, and Corporate Law Authority, is the corporate legislative and financial regulatory agency of Pakistan whose objectiv ...

and the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN), and is on the board of directors of the Lahore Stock Exchange.Who is Waleed Iqbal? Profile of PTI’s newest addition
10 November 2011 – Insafians.com

Bar memberships

*Advocate, Pakistan (1994) *Advocate,

High Courts of Pakistan There are five high courts of Pakistan, each based in the capital city of the four provinces, plus one in the federal capital, Islamabad. Articles 192 to 203 of the Constitution of Pakistan outline the constitution of the courts, appointment of t ...

(1996) *

State of New York New York, also called New York State, is a state in the northeastern United States. Bordered by New England to the east, Canada to the north, and Pennsylvania and New Jersey to the south, its territory extends into both the Atlantic Ocean and ...

(1998) *Roll of Solicitors of England and Wales (2004; currently non-practicing)

Political career

Iqbal joined

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. ...

in November 2011. He was the party's candidate for 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 repr ...

from the NA-124 (Lahore-VII) district in the 2013 election, but was defeated by Sheikh Rohail Asghar of

PML-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 ...

. He took oath as a member of the

representing

on 14 December 2018. He was the chairman of the Senate Committee on Defence from 2019 to 2021. He is the chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Defence.

Writings

His published work spans a range of subjects, including Pakistan’s nuclear tests and related sanctions, the country’s constitutional framework, alternative dispute resolution mechanisms,

Islamic law Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on scriptures of Islam, particularly the Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' refers to immutable, intan ...

and constitutionalism, Pakistan–Russia relations, and the philosophy of Iqbal. Some of Walid Iqbal's publications include: *''Islam and Democracy in the 21st Century'' ussian-American Seminar on Democracy and National Movements in the Modern World Russian Academy of Sciences, Ufa Branch Academy of Sciences of the Bashkortostan Republic October 20–23, 1999/small> *''Islamic Polity and the Constitutional Process in Pakistan'' rticle for the inaugural issue of the quarterly “Criterion”, Pakistan, Fall 2006/small> *''Life and Work of Iqbal: Why Muhammad Iqbal Has Contemporary Value'' [Presentation made at Conference on "Muhammad Iqbal Limits and Transcending Limits The Antagonism of Religion and Philosophy", Centre for Islamic Theology Westfȁlische Wilhelms University Münster, Germany Friday, 20 November 2015] *''Iqbal, Islamic Faith, and Islamic Civilization'' [Presentation made at The First International Symposium on Allama Muhammad Iqbal Zitouna University Tunis, Tunisia Tuesday, 26 February 2019]

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Iqbal, Waleed Living people Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf politicians Politicians from Lahore Waleed Pakistani lawyers University of the Punjab alumni Pakistani people of Kashmiri descent Harvard Law School alumni Wharton School alumni Alumni of the University of Cambridge Academic staff of Lahore University of Management Sciences Aitchison College alumni Sullivan & Cromwell people Year of birth missing (living people) Iqbal scholars