Ishaq Dar

Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar (Urdu: محمد اسحاق ڈار); is a chartered accountant & a leading financial-cum-economic expert who is serving his country as the Federal Finance Minister of Pakistan. Senator Dar in addition to serving his country as Federal Minister for Finance, Commerce & Industries numerous times in the past has also served as the Leader of the Opposition, in the Senate of Pakistan.

After once again getting elected unopposed in the 2012 Senate elections, Dar was nominated and appointed as the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate of Pakistan on 14 March 2012. He is PMLN's current Parliamentary leader to the Senate of Pakistan.Being made the Finance Minister for the first time in November 1998, he negotiated an IMF rescue package to meet an economic crisis triggered by sanctions over nuclear tests in May that year. The head of a state-run bank later proclaimed that "Whether you call it voodoo economics or Darnomics, he has moved things", referring Darnomics as the unique working of Ishaq Dar when he refused to accept a devaluation or a rise in utility charges or tax rates.

Shahid Masood

Shahid Masood Khan (Urdu: شاہد مسعود خان‎), widely known as Dr. Shahid Masood is a Pakistani mental doctor political writer, television host, journalist, and political analyst.

A psychiatrist, his career in broadcast journalism began after the terror attacks in the United States in 2001. During this time, he conducted various political interview of many of country's influential statesman and politicians. Prior to this, he also served senior executive director of news formats of GEO News and also for the ARY News.He was appointed managing director of Pakistan Television Network (PTV) by Prime Minister Yousaf Gilani in 2008; though he resigned from this position.

As of current, he regularly writes in Newsweek Middle East and hosts a show on ARY NEWS. He is known for his tough rhetoric against the US-led policies on the War on Terror.

Early life and career

Khan was raised in Taif and Riyadh throughout his early life. His father was a civil engineer who worked in a Saudi Petroleum International, and was a vital member of Pakistani community in Saudi Arabia. Though, his family relocated to Pakistan after his father joined the Pakistan State Oil (PSO) in teenage years.

Nawaz Sharif

Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif (Urdu: میاں محمد نواز شریف‎, pronounced [nəˈʋaːz ʃəˈriːf]; born 25 December 1949) the 18th and current Prime Minister of Pakistan in office since June 2013. A veteran politician and industrialist, he previously served as Prime Minister from November 1990 to July 1993 and from February 1997 to October 1999. Sharif is the president of Pakistan Muslim League, which is currently Pakistan's largest political party, and has formed the government. As the owner of Ittefaq Group, a leading business conglomerate, he is also one of the country's wealthiest people. He is commonly known as the "Lion of the Punjab".

Nawaz Sharif entered politics in the 1980s when in the general elections of 1985, he won with an overwhelming majority, both in the National and Provincial Assemblies. On 9 April 1985, he was sworn-in as Chief Minister of Punjab. On 31 May 1988, he was appointed caretaker Chief Minister, after the dismissal of Assemblies by General Zia. Nawaz Sharif was again elected as Chief Minister after the 1988 general elections. After Zia's death and Benazir Bhutto's being elected Prime Minister in 1988, Sharif emerged as opposition leader from the conservative Pakistan Muslim League. When Bhutto was dismissed by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan in 1990 on corruption charges, Sharif was elected Prime Minister the same year. But relations between Sharif and Ghulam Ishaq too deteriorated, with Ghulam Ishaq attempting to dismiss Sharif on similar charges. Sharif successfully challenged the President's decision in the Supreme Court, but both men were ultimately persuaded to step down in 1993 by army chief Abdul Waheed Kakar.

Finance minister

A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. It may also be a junior minister in the finance department, the British Treasury, for example has four junior ministers.

A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names across the world, such as "treasury", "finance", "financial affairs", "economy" or "economic affairs". The position of the finance minister might be named for this portfolio, but it may also have some other name, like "Treasurer" or, in the United Kingdom, "Chancellor of the Exchequer".

The duties of a finance minister differ between countries. Typically, they encompass one or more of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation, but there are significant differences between countries:

Pakistan

Coordinates: 30°N 70°E / 30°N 70°E / 30; 70

Pakistan (ⁱ/ˈpækᵻstæn/ or ⁱ/pɑːkiˈstɑːn/; Urdu: پاكستان‎ ALA-LC: Pākistān, pronounced [pɑːkɪst̪ɑːn]), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (Urdu: اسلامی جمہوریۂ پاكستان‎ ALA-LC: Islāmī Jumhūriyah Pākistān IPA: [ɪslɑːmiː d͡ʒʊmɦuːriəɪh pɑːkɪst̪ɑːn]), is a country in South Asia. It is the sixth-most populous country with a population exceeding 199 million people. It is the 36th largest country in the world in terms of area with an area covering 881,913 km² (340,509 sq mi). Pakistan has a 1,046-kilometre (650 mi) coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by India to the east, Afghanistan to the west, Iran to the southwest and China in the far northeast respectively. It is separated from Tajikistan by Afghanistan's narrow Wakhan Corridor in the north, and also shares a maritime border with Oman.

The territory that now constitutes Pakistan was previously home to several ancient cultures, including the Mehrgarh of the Neolithic and the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilisation, and was later home to kingdoms ruled by people of different faiths and cultures, including Hindus, Indo-Greeks, Muslims, Turco-Mongols, Afghans and Sikhs. The area has been ruled by numerous empires and dynasties, including the Indian Mauryan Empire, the Persian Achaemenid Empire, Alexander of Macedonia, the Arab Umayyad Caliphate, the Mongol Empire, the Mughal Empire, the Durrani Empire, the Sikh Empire and the British Empire. As a result of the Pakistan Movement led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the subcontinent's struggle for independence, Pakistan was created in 1947 as an independent nation for Muslims from the regions in the east and west of the Subcontinent where there was a Muslim majority. Initially a dominion, Pakistan adopted a new constitution in 1956, becoming an Islamic republic. A civil war in 1971 resulted in the secession of East Pakistan as the new country of Bangladesh.