Ishaq Dar

Muhammad Ishaq Dar (Urdu: محمد اسحاق ڈار; born 23 May 1950), is a Pakistani politician who has served as 38th Foreign Minister of Pakistan since 2024.

He previously served as Finance Minister of Pakistan from 2022 to 2023, as Leader of the House for the Senate from 2022, and as Leader of the Opposition for the Senate of Pakistan from 2012 to 2013, while serving as Senator for Punjab since 2022.

He identifies as a free-market conservative and has been associated with both economically liberal and fiscally conservative policies.

Dar was born in 1950 in Lahore.

He attended the Hailey College of Commerce, Government College University, and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

He began his career as a chartered accountant in the public and private sector.

Dar was born in 1950.

He has a bachelor's degree in commerce from the Hailey College of Commerce of the University of the Punjab in Lahore, which he attended from 1966 to 1969.

He then attended Government College University in Lahore.

Dar was awarded two merit gold medals and was placed on the roll of honour for coming in first position in B.Com.

(Hons) at the University of Punjab.

Dar became an Associate Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales in 1974, when he qualified as a chartered accountant.

Dar was director of finance in a London-based textile corporation from 1974 to 1976.

In 1975, he became associate member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan.

He moved to Libya in 1976 and worked for the Government of Libya as senior auditor in the Office of the Auditor General's Department in Tripoli.

On returning to Pakistan in 1977, he became partner in a chartered accountancy firm and in 1980 he became financial adviser to Nazir & Company, a multinational construction company.

He entered politics in the 1980s.

He became a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales in 1980 and of Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan in 1984.

Currently, he is a fellow member of the Pakistan Institute of Public Finance Accountants and Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Professionally, Dar is a chartered and management accountant and economist.

Dar began his political career in the late 1980s as a member of the central executive committee of the Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML(N)).

In 1992, the then Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, appointed him Chairman of the Pakistan Board of Investment with a status of Minister of State.

In 1993, the then President of Pakistan, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, dismissed the Sharif ministry.

He became President of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry that same year.

Dar first stood for the National Assembly in a bye-election after the 1993 Pakistani general election; Sharif had stood and won in two constituencies but had to resign from one.

Dar won on a 62% voteshare (39,483 votes).

In 1996, the President, Farooq Leghari, dismissed the Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and her government, and dissolved the National Assembly.

In the 1997 snap election, Dar successfully stood for election to Lahore's NA-97 National Assembly constituency on a PML(N) ticket and won 61,556 votes.

Sharif's PML(N) again won a clear majority, and Dar was Federal Minister for Industries and Investment in from February to July 1997.

In December 1997, he was appointed Federal Minister for Commerce.

In 1998, India and then Pakistan tested nuclear weapons; Pakistan was subsequently economically sanctioned, with severe economic consequences.

Dar was then appointed Minister for Finance, and negotiated an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout package.

According to a statement from Dar recorded by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) when he was detained following the 1999 Pakistani coup d'état, he began a close association with the Sharif family in 1990, in the course of which he laundered "$14.68 million and open[ed] two bank accounts under the names of Sikandar Masood Qazi and Talat Masood Qazi for Nawaz Sharif's brother".

In 1999, General Pervez Musharraf overthrew the Sharif ministry in a military coup d'état.

Dar spent nearly two years in jail on corruption charges that never went to trial.

Dar withstood pressure to politically abandon the PML(N) and Sharif, but during his detention in 2000, Dar accused Nawaz Sharif of having engaged in money laundering in the late 1990s and, in connection with the Hudabya Papers Mills case, Dar confessed to laundering US$14.86 million on behalf of the Nawaz Sharif.

He later said these statements were made under duress.

On his release, Musharraf remained in power, and Dar moved to the United Arab Emirates, where he worked as a financial adviser.

He was elected to the senate in 2003 and was Leader of the Opposition from 2012 to 2013.

He has served as federal minister for commerce; industries and investment; and finance and revenue.