Chief Minister Punjab President PML-N
MPA, PP-48 (Bhakkar-II)
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz
Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif
Born in Lahore in 1950, Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif is younger brother of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Shahbaz Sharif, who graduated with distinction from Lahore, is a keen businessman and played a vital role in success of the Ittefaq Group of Companies, which was founded by his father and uncles. He was elected as president of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 1985.
He was elected to the Punjab Assembly in 1988 elections and National Assembly in 1990. He was again elected to the Punjab Assembly in 1993 and was named leader of the opposition in the house when Manzoor Wattoo was the chief minister of Punjab.
After his election to the Punjab Assembly for the third time in 1997 elections, Shahbaz Sharif was elected leader of the house and sworn in as the chief minister of Punjab on February 20, 1997. He held the office till October 12, 1999 when the military under staged a coup under General Pervez Musharraf and toppled the government of his brother. He was arrested from the Prime Minister in Islamabad along with his brother.
As the chief executive of the Punjab province, he was known as a strict disciplinarian. During his tenure, he tried to eliminate the culture of bureaucratic hurdles in the uplift process and focused on health, education, agriculture and industrial sectors. He launched a successful operation against ghost schools by involving army. He also took action against use of illegal means in examinations across the province. The entry test and self-finance systems in medical colleges were introduced during his tenure as the Punjab chief minister. He never compromised on quality of work in development sector and several projects in Lahore are a proof of his commitment in this regard. Even his opponents described as the best administrator the Punjab ever has.
Exiled to Saudi Arabia along with the whole Sharif family on December 20, 2000, he was elected unopposed as president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on August 3, 2002. He spent two years in Saudi Arabia and then moved to the United States for medical treatment and instead of returning to Jeddah, where his family was staying, he went to London. He attempted to come back to Pakistan on May 11, 2004 but was again deported to Saudi Arabia within a few hours. He was re-elected as PML-N president for second term on August 2, 2006. He was once considered a strong future candidate for office of the prime minister of Pakistan.
He represented Pakistan at various international forums including the United Nations, where his views and speaking powers were appreciated. His keynote speech at the International Labour Conference held in Geneva in 1981 was praised by the worker associations, activists and democratic people around the world.
He returned to Pakistan along with other family members on November 25, 2007 and landed at the Allama Iqbal Airport in Lahore.
Shahbaz Sharif’s first marriage with his cousin Begum Nusrat Shahbaz was contracted in 1973 with the approval of his father Mian Muhammad Sharif. The couple has two sons, Hamza Shahbaz and Salman Shahbaz, and three daughters. His second marriage was with Aaliya Honey in 1993-94. At that time he was living in London. They have one daughter, Khadija. He contracted his third marriage with Tehmina Durrani. This is the third marriage of both Shahbaz Sharif and Tehmina Durrani.
