Shah Mahmood Qureshi is the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf vice-chairman and the country’s former finance minister. He is up against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s president Shehbaz Sharif, the frontrunner for the top post
Shah Mahmood Qureshi filed his nomination for the position of prime minister on Sunday. AFP
There’s hectic political activity going on in Islamabad. The National Assembly (NA), the lower house of the Pakistan Parliament, will convene today to elect its prime minister. On Sunday, Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (PML-N) president Shehbaz Sharif filed his nomination papers. Up against him is, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) Shah Mahmood Qureshi, picked by Imran Khan, who lost the historic no-confidence motion on Saturday.
The National Assembly tweeted on Sunday, “Nomination papers of Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif and Shah Mehmood Qureshi for the election of Leader of the House/Prime Minister accepted. Nomination papers were scrutinised. After scrutiny, nomination papers of both the candidates were accepted.”
Who is Shah Mahmood Qureshi?
Qureshi is the PTI vice-chairman and Pakistan’s former foreign minister. He has served two terms so far – from 2008 to 2011 and 2018 to 2022. He added “former” to his Twitter bio ahead of Saturday’s no-trust vote.
Qureshi belongs to an influential family in Multan and started his foray into politics in 1985 and was elected as a member of the Punjab Assembly. Over a career spanning more than 35 years, he has worked with all of Pakistan’s mainstream parties, first associating himself with PML, then the Pakistan Peoples Party, and finally quitting to join Khan’s PTI in 2011.
Qureshi was once again elected to the Punjab Assembly in 1988 when he served as the minister of planning and development in Nawaz Sharif’s cabinet, and in 1990 when he also served as Punjab’s finance minister.
He switched over to PPP and was elected to the National Assembly (NA) in the 1993 election, serving as the minister of state for parliamentary affairs during Benazir Bhutto’s government. He lost the election in 1997 (to former PML-N-current-PTI Javed Hashmi) but bounced back in 2002 as a member of the NA (MNA), according to Dawn.
Qureshi served as Multan’s district nazim from 2000 to 2002 and resigned from office to contest for the NA on the PPP ticket from 2002 to 2007.
In 2006, he was made president of PPP Punjab. He became a more prominent face in national politics in 2008. He was a serious contender for the prime minister’s post but was given the foreign ministry.
As a foreign minister, he faced big challenges. Pakistan came under scrutiny for its role in 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks and the case of Raymond Davis, a former US soldier and CIA contractor who shot two men in Lahore, leading to diplomatic tensions between the two nations. Qureshi was against granting diplomatic immunity to Davis and his tough stand hit his position in the PPP.
He resigned from the party as well as from his NA seat. By this point, the foreign ministry portfolio had also been taken away from him, reports Dawn.
He joined the PTI and was welcomed as a “clean candidate” by Imran Khan. He has been an important figure in Khan’s party since and has been backing the former premier amid the ongoing political crisis.
Qureshi’s defence of Imran Khan
He has been supporting Khan’s allegation of a “foreign” hand in the current political crisis in Pakistan. “Today Pakistan is standing at a historic juncture and the people need to decide whether they want to live in an independent state or become slaves [to the West],” the 65-year-old politician told the Parliament on Saturday ahead of the no-confidence motion.
The former finance minister also alleged that Imran Khan was told not to go to Russia by the US. “…I want to bring this to record that when the decision to visit Moscow was taken after due deliberation because of Pakistan’s better future and was taken months before the Ukraine situation emerged,” he said, referring to the controversy generated by Khan’s maiden visit to Russia for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin on the eve of the invasion of Ukraine.
Qureshi’s views on India
At the no-trust vote, the former foreign minister also raked up the Kashmir issue while defending Khan. “There are issues on Pakistan’s concerns. Why do they (the Pak opposition) remain silent on that? Is the Jammu and Kashmir issue not our issue? If we ask them to take a stand they say no, do it bilaterally,” Qureshi said.
He also brought up the accidental fire of a missile from India last month that landed in Pakistan, saying that the accidental firing could have led to an “accidental war”.
“When India fired their missile into Pakistan accidentally, I said that that accidental missile could have led to an accidental war. Are human rights violations not happening in Indian occupied Kashmir,” he asked.
What the future holds for Qureshi
Sharif will likely be appointed as the new Pakistan prime minister.
PTI’s MNAs have threatened to resign en masse but no final decision was taken at the core committee meeting chaired by Khan on Sunday. The final decision will reportedly be taken at the party parliamentary meet scheduled for noon today. Whether Qureshi will contest the election for the premiership or will resign along with other MNAs of the PTI and its allies depends on the outcome of the PTI parliamentary meeting, reports Dawn.
With inputs from agencies
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