Pir Mazhar Ul Haq

Pir Mazhar Ul Haq (Urdu: پیر مظہر الحق ) is parliamentary leader of Pakistan Peoples Party in Sindh Assembly and Senior Provincial Minister in the Sindh Provincial Government, holding the portfolio of Education. He was elected from PS-74 Dadu-IV in Dadu, Sind, Pakistan.

Politics

Pir Mazhar Ul Haq is a politician in Pakistan who is considered one of the most loyal members of the Pakistan Peoples Party as he has been offering many sacrifices for the party in the past. The former law and parliamentary affairs minister in the 1993 PPP government faced jail and exile but did not compromise. He joined the PPP when other activists had started jumping off the PPP ship after the imposition of Gen Zia’s martial law.

He is a grandson of former chief minister Pir Ilahi Bux, who served the province from May 1948 to 1949. He is also the grandson of Qazi Akbar, who was a provincial minister in Sindh, including serving as Home Minister. Pir Mazhar is the great nephew of Qazi Abdul Majeed Abid, who held numerous Federal Ministries in Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq government, including Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, and Federal Minister for Water and Power. He is also the nephew of Dr. Fahmida Mirza, the present Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan and nephew of ex-MNA Qazi Asad Abid‎.

He is an articulate lawyer and if he had not jumped into politics, he would have been among the top lawyers of the country. Pir Mazhar had won all elections he contested except in 2002 when he was in self-imposed exile. His daughter Marvi Mazhar was elected into the Sindh assembly in those elections. During his more than three decades of association with the PPP, he also suffered incarceration in 15 prisons, including the Machh Jail, but steadfastly clung to the party. It is ironic that his Great Uncle, Qazi Abdul Majeed Abid‎, was in Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq's cabinet while he was in prison.

During the PPP governments in 1988 and 1993, Pir Mazhar was inducted as minister for housing and town planning, and law and parliamentary affairs, respectively. In the current Provincial Assembly of Sindh, he is leader of the parliamentary party and the Senior Minister in the Sindh Cabinet with the portfolio of Education.

Pir Mazhar Ul Haq is the father of Marvi Mazhar was elected to the Sindh Assembly from PS-74 Dadu-IV in 2003 provincial elections.

Corruption charges

The National Accountability Court on Monday acquitted PPP legislator Pir Mazharul Haq in two corruption cases due to lack of evidence. Mazharul Haq was being tried for the alleged commercialisation of amenity plots and the transfer of land in violation of rules and regulations as provincial and town planning minister in the 90s. Filing an acquittal application, the petitioner’s counsel Shahadat Awan submitted that his client was falsely implicated in the cases by the then Sindh Chief Minister Liaquat Jatoi.

See also

* Pir Ilahi Bux
* Fahmida Mirza
* Marvi Mazhar
* Qazi Abdul Majeed Abid‎
* Qazi Asad Abid
* Qazis of Hyderabad
* Pakistan Peoples Party

External links

* [http://www.dawn.com/2008/03/05/local2.htm Dawn]
* [http://67.59.144.177/daily_detail.asp?id=98164 Daily]