Biography of Sheikh Rasheed

Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad is a Pakistani politician who is the current Federal Minister for Railways, in office since 20 August 2018. Ahmed has been a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan since August 2018 and is the current leader of the Awami Muslim League. 

Ahmed was born on 6 November 1950 in Babra Bazaar in Rawalpindi, Punjab. According to another report, he was born on 17 February 1950.

He received his early education in from Polytechnic College and graduated from Gordon College. He completed his Bachelor of Laws at the University of Punjab. Ahmed was a leader of the student union at Gordon College.

Ahmed began his political career during his student years and was actively involved against the military regime of Ayub Khan.

In the 1985 Pakistani general election which was held on non-party basis, he was elected as the member of the National Assembly for the first time from Rawalpindi.

In the 1988 Pakistani general election, he was re-elected as the member of the National Assembly for the second time from Rawalpindi on Islamic Democratic Alliance (IDA) ticket.

In the 1990 Pakistani general election, he was re-elected as the member of the National Assembly for the third time from Rawalpindi on IDA ticket and became the Minister of Sports. In his tenure Pakistan won the world cup in 1992 under the captaincy of Imran Khan.

In the 1993 Pakistani general election, he was re-elected as the member of the National Assembly for the fourth time from Rawalpindi on PML (N) ticket.

In the 1997 Pakistani general election, he was re-elected as the member of the National Assembly for the fifth time from Rawalpindi.

For the 2002 Pakistani general election, PML-N refused to allot ticket to Ahmed for running in the election. Ahmed was re-elected in the 2002 election as the member of the National Assembly for the sixth time from NA-55 (Rawalpindi) as independent candidate.

Later, he joined PML-Q.

Since Ahmad was considered a close aide of Pervez Musharraf therefore during his sixth tenure as member of the National Assembly, he was appointed as Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting in the Zafarullah Khan Jamali cabinet in November 2002.

As minister for information, Ahmed, on public places, had assumed the role of the spokesman of Pervez Musharraf and advocate of government of Zafarullah Khan Jamali.

In May 2006, he was made Federal Minister for Railways.

He also served as Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly of Pakistan.

In the 2008 Pakistani general election, Ahmed ran for the seat of National Assembly on a Pakistan Muslim League-Q ticket however, lost the election for the first time from both of his Rawalpindi constituencies, NA-55 and NA-56 to PML-N.

He later left PML-Q where he was a senior vice-president and created his own political party Awami Muslim League (Pakistan) (AML) and self-appointed himself as president of the party.

In February 2010, while Ahmed was preparing to run for the seat of National Assembly in by-election in NA-55, Rawalpindi, he was attacked by unknown gunmen at his election office in Rawalpindi. It was believed Taliban militants were behind the attack which injured Ahmed and killed three others known to be his bodyguards.

In the 2013 Pakistani general election, Ahmed made an electoral alliance with Imran Khan to support each other in their respective constituencies in the election. It was reported that Ahmed has requested for a merger between his party and the PTI however PTI decided not to go for an alliance with any political party.

He was re-elected as the member of the National Assembly for the seventh time from Rawalpindi.

In July 2017, he was chosen by the PTI as a candidate for the post of Prime Ministership of Pakistan, following the resignation of outgoing Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after Panama Papers case decision. He secured 33 votes in the 342 seat parliament and was unsuccessful.

He was re-elected to the National Assembly as a candidate of AML from Constituency NA-62 (Rawalpindi-VI) in Pakistani general election, 2018.

On 18 August, Imran Khan formally announced his federal cabinet structure and Ahmad was named as Minister for Railways. On 20 August 2018, he was sworn in as Federal Minister for Railways in the federal cabinet of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

In his political career he has been given 7 ministries which are; (1.)Minister for work and labor, (2.)Minister for data and broadcasting, (3.)Minister for enterprises, (4.)Minister for games and culture; (5.)Minister for leisure industry and (6.)Minister for railways. Currently he is serving his second non-consecutive term as the (7.)Minister of Railways.

In 2012, Ahmed was detained at Houston airport concerning his links with Lashkar-e-Taiba and with Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, an alleged mastermind of 2008 Mumbai attacks. He was released after five hours of interrogation after official protest from Pakistani Ambassador in United States.

In 2014, Ahmed was off-loaded from a Toronto bound PIA flight due to non-issuance of clearance by the Canadian authorities. For more latest news Pakistan, visit 9newshd.tv