Rana Iqbal Ahmad Khan (Urdu/Punjabi: رانا اقبال احمد خان) is a Pakistani lawyer and former politician who previously served as a provincial cabinet minister in the Punjab government.[1][2] A veteran member of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), he began his legal career in the mid-1960s and also entered politics at around the same time. He is a practicing advocate in the Supreme Court[2] and a member of the District Bar Association of Gujranwala.[3] More recently, he has been associated with Tahir-ul-Qadri and his Pakistan Awami Tehreek movement.[2]
Background
Khan was born in the village of Talwandi in the Patiala State (now in eastern Punjab), in pre-partition British India. He belongs to a Rajput family and his father Rana Khurshid Ahmad Khan[3] was a zamindar (landlord).[1] Following the partition of India in 1947, his family migrated to Pakistan and settled in the village of Sanhara Geraya in Gujranwala District, Punjab.[1] He is a resident of Satellite Town, Gujranwala.[1][3]
Education
Khan matriculated from the Government High School in Gujranwala in 1957, following which he studied at the Islamia College in Lahore, graduating in 1961. He later pursued a Master of Arts degree in Persian at the Punjab University in 1963, and completed a Bachelor of Laws at the same university in 1965.[1]
Legal and political career
Khan began his legal practice in 1965 at the District Court of Gujranwala.[1][3] In 1968, he became an advocate in the Lahore High Court.[1] He entered politics at a young age as one of the grassroots members of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP),[1] establishing a working relationship with Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto[2] and playing a key role in organising the party's early democratic movement.[1] During his political career, Khan served as a chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party in Gujranwala District and also chaired the Gujranwala Kissan Committee (farmers' committee).[1] He also contested in elections on behalf of the PPP and became a member of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab in December 1970.[1]
He later became a minister in the cabinet of the PPP-led provincial Government of Punjab, serving in various departments.[1] In recent times, Rana Iqbal has been affiliated with the Pakistan Awami Tehreek, led by the religious scholar and academic Tahir-ul-Qadri.[2] He is a member of the District Bar Association in Gujranwala and is now a senior advocate with the Supreme Court.[3]
References
