Asif Ahmad Ali

Sardar Asif Ahmad Ali was born in 1940, at Lahore, Punjab (Pakistan). He hails from a principal landowning family of the Punjab, whose role in politics, in this region, preceeds the British rule in India. The family has a reputation of repelling authority and was instrumental in fighting against the Sikhs and later the British. His uncle Sardar Muhammad Hussain remained member parliement pre and post partition and pioneered the advent of Pakistan Muslim League in Central Punjab, region. His father Sardar Ahmad Ali, who also remained member parliament throughout his career, and Sardar Muhammad Hussain lead regional movements against the Unionist Party which was patronised by the British. The first mammoth public ralley for and on behalf of the Muslim League under, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, was held near his ancestral village, Ganja Kalan, at Kasur, Punjab. As a result of the partition, the family lost vast tracts of agricultural land near Satluj river, Kasur. The family is considered as the chief family of the influencial Arain clan.

He attended Government College Lahore and St. John’s College, Oxford, where he studied philosophy, economics and politics.Sardar Asif Ahmad Ali is a senior member of Pakistan Peoples Party. He was the foreign minister of Pakistan in the cabinet of Benazir Bhutto during her second tenure as Prime Minister.

Sardar Asif also served as the Minister for Economic Affairs during the 1991-1993 Nawaz Sharif government, but resigned from the cabinet after developing differences with the Prime Minister. His resignation along with those of other members of parliament eventually lead to overthrow of the first Nawaz Sharif government. While serving as the Economic Affairs Minister, Sardar Asif lead numerous delegations of pakistani civil society members and organizations to Russia and cultivated valuable business and diplomatic relationship with various disintegrated States of the former USSR. He was awarded an honorary citizenship of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

As Foreign Minister of Pakistan, He was unanimously elected Chairman of the Organization of Islamic Conference.

In 2003 He held a painting exhibition at Lahore where he displayed some of his handdrawn sketches and paintings, which was attended by the then Prime Minister Mir Zafrulah Jamali.

In the recently held general elections, He was returned to the National Assembly, the fifth time after defeating his arch rival, the outgoing foreign minister Barrister Khurshid Mahmood Qasuri.

Sardar Asif has been a strong opponent of dictatorships and opposed the rule of President, General Pervaiz Musharaf and that of General Muhammad Ziaul Haq.