Malik Meraj Khalid was a Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

i lawyer and politician and the acting Prime Minister of Pakistan

Prime Minister of Pakistan

The Prime Minister of Pakistan , is the Head of Government of Pakistan who is designated to exercise as the country's Chief Executive. By the Constitution of Pakistan, Pakistan has the parliamentary democratic system of government...

 from November 5, 1996 till February 17, 1997.

Early life and career beginnings

Malik Meraj Khalid was born in Dera Chalal, a small village near Lahore

Lahore

Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...

. He was educated at Islamia College, Lahore. In 1948 he began to practice law. For the first time he elected to the Provincial Assembly of West Pakistan in 1965. In 1968 he joined the Pakistan Peoples Party

Pakistan Peoples Party

The Pakistan Peoples Party , is a democratic socialist political party in Pakistan affiliated with Socialist International. Pakistan People's Party is the largest political party of Pakistan...

 (PPP) and was appointed President of Lahore chapter. It was on the PPP ticket that he was successfully re-elected to the National Assembly in 1970.

Friendship with Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto

Malik Meraj Khalid, famous for his gentleness and honesty was a favourite of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the flamboyant Prime Minister of Pakistan during 1970s. It was him who played a major role in the political career of Meraj Khalid by first appointing him as his Minister for Food and Agriculture and Under-Developed Areas in December 1971. Afterwards he was appointed Chief of the Party's Parliamentary Affairs in November 1972, and Minister of Social Welfare, Local Government and Rural Development in 1975.

Member and Speaker of National Assembly

After the execution of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in April 1979, he was nominated member of the PPP's Central Committee but he eventually resigned from this position in January 1988. After once more successfully returning to the National Assembly in 1988, he was once again appointed as Speaker of the National Assembly in 1988. However, he lost the subsequent elections in 1993, and remained aloof from politics for sometime. During this period of solitude he kept on serving as the Rector of International Islamic University in Islamabad

Islamabad

Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...

.

Interim Prime Minister

President Farooq Leghari, using the powers granted him by the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan, dismissed the government of Benazir Bhutto in November 1996, accusing it of corruption and politically motivated killings. Malik Meraj Khalid was asked to officiate the interim government before new elections.

As caretaker prime minister, Malik Meraj Khalid set a new precedent of austerity. On most occasions, he travelled without protocol. He would often be seen strolling on the Mall in Lahore.

External links

1. Chronicles Of Pakistan
2. A profile of Malik Meraj Khalid
3. Meraj Khalid passes away

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