Javed Hashmi

His family was known for their participation in the Pakistan Movement and was part of the Muslim League since its inception in 1906.

Makhdoom Muhammad Javed Hashmi (born 1 January 1948 ), is a Pakistani politician, political realist, and a senior conservative thinker on the platform of Pakistan Muslim League (N).

Javed Hashmi was born into an agriculturist family on 1 January 1948 in Multan, Punjab in Pakistan.

Other sources noted his birthplace in Lahore with same date and year of birth; though, he confirmed his date of birth and year as well as birthplace on 1 January 1948 in Multan.

After his matriculation in 1968, Hashmi went to attend the Emerson College in Multan but made a transfer to the Punjab University in Lahore in 1970, where he became involved in student politics on the platform of the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba, the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami– a far right party.

In 1969, he secured his graduation from the Punjab University with BSc. in Political Science.

In 1971, he graduated with MSc in political science, and later attained MPhil in same discipline from the same institution.

In 1972, he gained public notice when he led his student organization, the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba, in protest of government minister involved in kidnapping of two girls at the Governor's House when Governor of Punjab, Ghulam Mustafa Khar, was hosting a state dinner in honor of President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and the visiting British minister.

In 1974, he ultimately led strong protests in Lahore against the decision of international recognition of Bangladesh and reportedly breached all security arrangements, to appear right in front of the motorcade of the then Saudi King Shah Faisal.

During this time, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto offered him to be appointed on political post at the High Commission of Pakistan in London but he denied the political appointment.

In 1978, Hashmi was taken in the Zia administration as the Minister of State for Youth and Student Affairs, and was the youngest minister at the age of 29.

However, he later expressed his uncomfortableness with working with the uniform officials and soon departed from the administration where he began practicing law at the Lahore High Court while filling the role of agriculturist at his family farms.

During the nationwide general elections held in 1985, Hashmi returned to the national politics and successfully participated for NA-149 (Multan-II) constituency on the platform of Pakistan Muslim League (PML).

In 1988, he sided with the conservative faction led by its President Fida Mohammad as opposed to nationalist faction led by then-Prime Minister Mohammad Junejo.

Hashmi successfully defended his NA-149 (Multan-II) constituency during the general elections held in 1988 and 1990.

During this time, Hashmi was elevated as the Minister of State for Youth Affairs in the first administration of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

After serving as a cabinet minister in the Sharif's administrations in the 1990s, Hashmi aligned himself on the realist school of international relations and was a proponent of supporting the civilian control on the federal government and the military.

In 1993, his name was subsequently reported in the financial scandal revealed by the Federal Investigation Agency when the agency interrogated Younis Habib, the accountant with the Ministry of Defence.

He later expressed his regret and grief when he testified his acceptance of financial endowment from accountant Younis Habib in 1993.

During the general elections held in 1997, Hashmi again defended his NA-149 (Multan-II) constituency and was elevated as the Minister of Health and Minister for Environment in the second administration of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and paid the state visit to Morocco in 1999.

In 1998, he visited Switzerland to attend the environmental and climate change conference but immediately return to Pakistan after learning of India's nuclear tests in Rajasthan.

In an attendance NSC meeting with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Hashmi became a war hawk and greatly spoke in favor of decision-making process of authorizing the nuclear weapons-testing, which eventually, Pakistan conducted out six nuclear weapons-testing in May 1998.

At the session at the Parliament, Hashmi reportedly led a celebration while loudly chairing and tapping from his parliament desk: "Yes! Yes!.... We have done it.!"

After the military takeover of the government in 1999, Hashmi reportedly exposed the Pakistan Army's misadventure in Kashmir with the Indian Army when he demanded to constitute the commission to investigate the events implicated front role of the President Pervez Musharraf in 2003.

His tenure was abruptly ended when then-Chairman joint chiefs General Pervez Musharraf went onto impose martial law against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1999, and was appointed as Party President of Pakistan Muslim League (N), which he tenured until 2005.

After the martial law against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1999, Hashmi became a vocal critic of former President Pervez Musharraf and strongly advocated for the strong civilian control of the military.

In 2001–04, Hashmi reportedly appealed to the Commonwealth of Nations and the European Union to play a significant political role to restore the civilian control of the federal government in Pakistan.

In 2001, an inquiry against his role in the Mehrangate scandal was opened by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) but was unable to produce any substantial evidence against him in the accountability courts.

In 2001, Hashmi led the strong conservative demonstration against President Pervez Musharraf's geostrategy on the War on Terror that led to the U.S. invasion in Afghanistan.

During this time, Shuja'at Hussain, the head of the PML(Q) supporting President Musharraf, made an unsuccessful attempt to recruiting him and Nisar Ali Khan into his faction to provide political advocacy for President Musharraf in 2002.

In 2002, the PML(N) announced to participate in the nationwide general elections with Hashmi earning the combined nomination from the Opposition alliance in the Parliament for the Prime Ministership against Mir Zafarullah Jamali of the PML(Q); Hashmi later conceded his defeat in the elections due to counting of the electoral college.

On 20 October 2003, Hashmi reportedly exposed the ethical and monetary corruption in the Pakistani military when he read the letter signed by several active-duty military officers in the Army GHQ in Rawalpindi.

He immediately demanded for an active criminal investigations against the chief of army staff and criticisized President Pervez Musharraf for his presidential campaign while in the military uniform.

On 29 October 2003, Lt-Gen. Shahid Aziz ordered the NAB agents to detained him from the Parliament Building, and was later taken in to custody by the Military Police on charges of inciting mutiny leveled by President Pervez Musharraf.

Hearings of his trials were held in the Adiala Prison and the session court at the Lahore High Court, which raised doubts among human rights groups about its fairness.

On 12 April 2004, he was sentenced to 23 years in prison for inciting mutiny in the military, forgery, and defamation.

Briefly sentenced to the solitary confinement by the session court in 2004 over the allegations of treason, Hashmi's sentence was overturn by the Supreme Court when it declared his case hearings as mistrial on 4 August 2007.

Initially supporting the impeachment movement against Pervez Musharraf with Nawaz Sharif, he drifted apart from the PML(N) to join the Imran Khan's PTI in 2011 but was ousted after disagreeing with the demonstration against the elected government, which he viewed that it had the support from the military to destabilized the elected Sharif administration in 2014.

Without political support, Hashmi lost the byelection and went on to join the PML(N) after reconciling his differences on the policy matters with the Nawaz Sharif in 2018.

Besides his political career, Hashmi is a prolific writer on geopolitics and geostrategy, and is an author of geopolitical book, "Yes! I'm a Rebel, where he successfully calculated the danger of the foreign supported homegrown terrorism in Pakistan and precisely placing a prediction on Musharraf government's weakening the state of Pakistan.