Shahid Khaqan Abbasi

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi (born 27 December 1963) is a Pakistani politician and businessman who served as the 21st prime minister of Pakistan from August 2017 to May 2018.

Abbasi is the senior vice President of the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), and has been the secretary-general of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), an anti-PTI coalition of political parties in Pakistan.

Abbasi was born into a Punjabi Muslim family on 27 December 1963 in his hometown of Murree in Murree District, Punjab.

He attended Lawrence College in Murree.

In 1978, he attended the University of California, Los Angeles, where he received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering.

Following this, he began a career as an electrical engineer.

He worked in the United States during the 1980s before moving to Saudi Arabia, where he worked on energy projects in the oil and gas industry.

In 1985, he attended George Washington University, where he gained a master's degree in Electrical Engineering.

After graduating from George Washington University, Abbasi became a professional electrical engineer.

non—consecutive terms since 1988.

Abbasi started his political career after the death of his father in 1988, and since then he has been elected a Member of the National Assembly six times for Constituency NA-50 (Rawalpindi).

Abbasi's political career began after the death of his father Khaqan Abbasi in 1988.

In May 1988, President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq sacked the government of his handpicked Prime Minister, Muhammad Khan Junejo, and prematurely dissolved the National Assembly.

Consequently, new parliamentary elections were called for 16 November 1988.

Abbasi ran for the National Assembly seat from Constituency NA-36 (Rawalpindi-I), which had been held by his father until his death.

Abassi was elected with 47,295 votes as an independent candidate.

He acquired Rawalpindi's National Assembly seat for the first time at the age of 30 by defeating both Raja Zafar ul Haq, a candidate of Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI), and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) candidate Raja Muhammad Anwar by a narrow margin.

After winning the election he joined the IJI, which was newly founded in September 1988 by then Director-General of Inter-Services Intelligence to counter the PPP.

His tenure as a Member of the National Assembly terminated after the National Assembly was dissolved prematurely in August 1990 following the dismissal of the government of Benazir Bhutto by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan.

New parliamentary elections were called for 24 October 1990.

Abbasi ran for a National Assembly seat as a candidate of IJI and was successfully re-elected from Constituency NA-36 (Rawalpindi-I).

He received 80,305 votes against 54,011 votes for PPP candidate Raja Muhammad Anwar.

Upon the victory of IJI in the 1990 national election, he was made Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Defence, a post he retained until the dissolution of the National Assembly in April 1993 with the dismissal of the Nawaz Sharif government by then President Ghulam Ishaq Khan.

New snap elections were called for 6 October 1993.

Abbasi ran for a National Assembly seat as a candidate of the Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML-N) and was re-elected for the third time from Constituency NA-36 (Rawalpindi-I).

He secured 76,596 votes against the PPP candidate, retired Colonel Habib Khan, who received 45,173 votes.

As a Member of the National Assembly, he performed his duties as the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly on Defence.

His tenure was terminated with the dissolution of the National Assembly in 1996 following the dismissal of the Benazir Bhutto government by President Farooq Leghari.

After the PML-N victory in the 1997 general election, he served as Chairman of Pakistan International Airlines until the 1999 Pakistani coup d'état.

New parliamentary elections were called for 3 February 1997, and Abbasi successfully retained his National Assembly seat as a candidate of the PML-N from Constituency NA-36 (Rawalpindi-I) for the fourth time.

He defeated Pakistan Muslim League (J) candidate Babar Awan and independent candidate Javed Iqbal Satti by securing 65,194 votes.

PML-N won a clear majority in the National Assembly for the first time.

That same year, he was appointed as the chairman of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

During his two years in this office, he is credited with implementing long-term and comprehensive reforms and getting the airline out of debt.

His tenure as the Chairman of PIA was terminated following the 1999 Pakistani coup d'état, during which then-Chief of Army Staff General Pervez Musharraf overthrew Sharif and his existing elected government.

After the formation of a temporary coalition government following the 2008 general election, he was briefly the Minister for Commerce in the Gillani ministry.

After the 2013 general election, he became the Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources in the third Sharif ministry, where he served from 2013 until the disqualification of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after the Panama Papers case decision in July 2017.

In August 2017, he was elected as 21st Prime Minister of Pakistan by the National Assembly.

He has been a Member of the National Assembly of Pakistan since October 2018.

Previously, he served as a member of the National Assembly for 8