Friday 24 June 2016

Shehbaz Sharif

Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif,; born 23 September 1951) is a Pakistani politician and the current Chief Minister of Punjab since 8 June 2013. Sharif is the province's longest-serving Chief Minister, having held the office twice previously from 1997 to 1999 and 2008 to 2013.

The younger brother of current Prime Minister and President of the Pakistan Muslim League (N) Nawaz Sharif, Shehbaz Sharif was elected to the Punjab Provincial Assembly in 1988, and to the National Assembly in 1990. He was again elected to the Punjab Assembly in 1993 and named Leader of the Opposition. Elected a third time in 1997, Sharif was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Punjab on 20 February 1997, while his brother took charge as Prime Minister.

After a military coup deposed the government in 1999, Nawaz and Shehbaz Sharif spent years of self-exile in Saudi Arabia, returning to Pakistan in 2007. Sharif was appointed Chief Minister for a second term after the PML-N's victory in the province in the 2008 general elections, but was deposed in 2009 after President Asif Zardari imposed governor's rule under Salmaan Taseer, following the Sharif brothers' electoral disqualification by the Supreme Court. The Sharifs were acquitted after the Long March restored the judiciary, and governor's rule was lifted. Sharif's second term focused on development in infrastructure, and successfully combating an outbreak of dengue fever in 2011.

In August 2015, various Pakistani media organisations uncovered the biggest child abuse case according to which 280 to 300 children were victims of sexual abuse in Hussain Khanwala village in Kasur, after the discovery of hundreds of video clips showing children performing forced sex acts.This child abuse was traced back to 2006 under the rule of former Chief Minister Punjab Pervaiz Ilahi. On 9 August 2015, Sharif ordered the Punjab Home Department to request Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court Manzoor Ahmed Malik to constitute a judicial inquiry to look into the matter. The Chief Justice rejected the request, on the grounds that such an inquiry was constituted for fact-finding missions, and that the police had already begun making arrests in this instance. Shehbaz Sharif took prompt action by suspending Kasur's DSP and three high-ranking officials of the Special Branch deputed in the region for their negligence in the case.

Shehbaz Sharif is the younger brother of Nawaz Sharif. In 1973, Sharif married his first wife, Nusrat Shehbaz. In 1993, Nusrat Shehbaz passed away and Shehbaz married his second wife, Aaliya Honey.Sharif's third and last marriage was with Tehmina Durrani, the author of My Feudal Lord.Shahbaz Sharif’s first marriage was with his cousin Nusrat Shahbaz in 1973, with the approval of his father, the late Mian Muhammad Sharif. They have two sons Hamza Shahbaz Sharif and Salman, and three daughters. His second marriage was with Aaliya Honey in 1993-94. They have one daughter, Khadija. He divorced her while in exile in Saudi Arabia. Shahbaz Sharif has a third marriage with Tehmina Durrani. he married at a secret but well attended ceremony in Dubai in 2003.

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