Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain

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Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain (Urdu: چودھری شجاعت حسین) (born January 27, 1946) is a politician from Pakistan who was the Prime Minister of that country from June 30, 2004 until August 28, 2004. He hails from the province of the Punjab, where his cousin Chaudhry Pervez Elahi served as Chief Minister from 2002 to 2007.

[edit] Early life and education

Chaudhry Shujaat was born on January 27, 1946 in Gujrat and graduated from Forman Christian College, University of the Punjab, Lahore in 1967.

[edit] Politics

Chaudhry Shujaat became a member of the federal parliament (Majlis-e-Shoora) in 1981 and until 1985 when he contested in the general election from Gujrat on both the National and Punjab Assemblies seats. After the elections he had to vacate his Punjab Assembly seat in favour of the National Assembly seat he had one and he became a member of the then Prime Minister Muhammad Khan Junejo’s cabinet as the Industries Minister. He served a further 4 terms as a member of the national assembly after being elected (1988, 1990, 1997, 2002). He also acted as the parliamentary party leader of the PML-N in the National Assembly. Over the years he held several portfolios as a Federal Minister including Information and Broadcasting (1986), Industries and Production (1987-1988), Interior (1990-1993), and Interior & Narcotics Control (1997-1999).

Chaudhry Shujaat was an active political leader as well, heading the Parliamentary Party of Joint Opposition in the National Assembly from 1988 to 1990. He was President of the Pakistan Muslim League (N) in Punjab from 1997 to 1999, led the Parliamentary Party then called PML-Q beginning in December 2002, was President of the Pakistan Muslim League in January 2003 and was elected President of Pakistan Muslim League on May 12, 2004.^{[citation needed]}

On the international scene, he has been named an Honorary Consul General in the Republic of South Korea (1982) and was awarded Korea's highest diplomatic award Order of the Diplomatic Service Merit "Ueung-in-Metal" for distinguished services in promoting mutual relations between Pakistan and Republic of Korea.

Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, then Pakistan's interim Prime Minister, sees off U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, after their July 2004 meeting at the Prime Minister's residence in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Chaudhry Shujaat served as Interior Minister during Nawaz Sharif's first tenure as Prime Minister. After losing the election from Gujrat in 1993, Chaudhry Shujaat became a member of the Senate of Pakistan and the Chairman of the Senate's standing committee on defence, production and aviation from 1993 to 1997. He won the general election again in 1997 by defeating PPP candidate justice Mukhtar Ahmad Junejo. Nawaz Sharif appointed Shujaat Hussain as the Interior Minister in his cabinet, and Hussain was elected the Punjab PML-Nawaz president in 1997.

[edit] Prime Minister and resignation

After the Nawaz Sharif government was overthrown by General Pervez Musharraf on October 12, 1999, several PML-N dissidents formed a group under Mian Muhammad Azhar's leadership. Earlier, Chaudhry Shujaat did not join any group, but after Nawaz Sharif's exile, he also joined Mian Azhar and formed the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) in March 2001. In the general election of October 2002, Chaudhry Shujaat was elected to the National Assembly. He has also been elected unopposed for three years in a row as president of the PML (Q), Pakistan's ruling party since 2006.

On July 9, 2007, he led a delegation that attempted to negotiate with militants besieged in the Red Mosque in Islamabad shortly before the military stormed the mosque compound early the next day.^[1]

Shujaat was a candidate in the February 2008 parliamentary election for a seat from Gujrat (NA-105), where he faced Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), and a seat from Sialkot (NA-112).^[2] In what was considered an upset, he was defeated by Mukhtar in Gujrat. He was also defeated in Sialkot.^[3] Shujaat subsequently accepted the PML-Q's defeat in the election and said that it was free and fair.^[4]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Story Of Pakistan Profile
• Official Website of Pakistan Muslim League