Chief minister

A chief minister is the elected head of government of a sub-national (e.g., constituent federal) entity. Examples include: a state (and sometimes a union territory) in India; a territory of Australia; provinces of Sri Lanka or Pakistan; Philippine autonomous regions; or a British Overseas Territory that has attained self-governance. It is also used as the English version of the title given to the heads of governments of the Malay states without a monarchy.

The title is also used in the Crown dependencies of the Isle of Man (since 1986), in Guernsey (since 2004), and in Jersey (since 2005).

In Malaysia, it is used to refer to the heads of government, called in the Malay language Ketua Menteri (literally chief minister), of the Malaysian states without a sultan, i.e., Malacca, Penang, Sabah and Sarawak – while the Malay language term Menteri Besar (literally great minister), is used in other states with a monarch.

By analogy, the term is often applied to various other high ministerial offices, e.g., those in a princely state before or during the British raj, or to chancellors of the Chinese states.

Punjab, Pakistan

Punjab (Urdu, Punjabi: پنجاب, panj-āb, "five waters":  listen ), also spelled Panjab, is the most populous of the four provinces of Pakistan. It has an area of 205,344 square kilometres (79,284 square miles) and a population of 91.379.615 in 2011, approximately 56% of the country's total population. Its provincial capital and largest city is Lahore. Punjab is bordered by the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir to the northeast and Punjab and Rajasthan to the east. In Pakistan it is bordered by Sindh to the south, Balochistān and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the west, and Islamabad and Azad Kashmir to the north.

The province comprises most of the fertile Punjab region, which also includes the Indian states of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. The region was divided during the Partition of India, when the majority Muslim areas became the Pakistani province and majority non-Muslim areas remaining part of India.

Punjab's geography mostly consists of the alluvial plain of the Indus River and its four major tributaries in Pakistan, the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, and Sutlej rivers. There are several mountainous regions, including the Sulaiman Mountains in the southwest part of the province, and Margalla Hills, Salt Range, and Pothohar Plateau in the north. Agriculture is the chief source of income and employment in Punjab; wheat and cotton are the principal crops. Since independence, Punjab has become the seat of political and economic power; it remains the most industrialised province of Pakistan. It counts for 39.2% of large scale manufacturing and 70% of small scale manufacturing in the country. Its capital Lahore is a major regional cultural, historical, and economic centre.

Shehbaz Sharif

Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif (Punjabi, pronounced [miˈɑ̃ː mʊˈɦəm.məd̪ ʃɛhˈbɑːz ʃəˈriːf]; born 23 September 1951) is a Pakistani politician and the current Chief Minister Punjab since 8 June 2013. Sharif is the province's longest-serving Chief Minister, having held the office twice previously from 1997 to 1999 and 2008 to 2013.

The younger brother of current Prime Minister and President of the Pakistan Muslim League (N) Nawaz Sharif, Shehbaz Sharif was elected to the Punjab Provincial Assembly in 1988, and to the National Assembly in 1990. He was again elected to the Punjab Assembly in 1993 and named Leader of the Opposition. Elected a third time in 1997, Sharif was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Punjab on 20 February 1997, while his brother took charge as Prime Minister.

After a military coup deposed the government in 1999, Nawaz and Shehbaz Sharif spent years of self-exile in Saudi Arabia, returning to Pakistan in 2007. Sharif was appointed Chief Minister for a second term after the PML-N's victory in the province in the 2008 general elections, but was deposed in 2009 after President Asif Zardari imposed governor's rule under Salmaan Taseer, following the Sharif brothers' electoral disqualification by the Supreme Court. The Sharifs were acquitted after the Long March restored the judiciary, and governor's rule was lifted. Sharif's second term focused on development in infrastructure, and successfully combating an outbreak of dengue fever in 2011.

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.

Punjab (region)

The Punjab (ⁱ/ˈpʌndʒɑːb/ or /ˈpʌndʒæb/), also spelled Panjab, panj-āb, "five rivers" (Punjabi: پنجاب (Shahmukhi), ਪੰਜਾਬ (Gurumukhi), Hindi: पंजाब (Devanagari)), is a geographical region in one of the northernmost parts of the Indian subcontinent or South Asia, comprising areas of eastern Pakistan and northern India.

It has been inhabited by Indus Valley Civilisation, Indo-Aryan peoples and has seen numerous invasions by the Achaemenid Empire, Greeks, Kushan Empire, Ghaznavids, Timurids, Mughals, Afghans, British and others. The people of the Punjab today are called Punjabis and their principal language is called Punjabi. The main religions of the Punjab region are Islam, Hinduism, and Sikhism. Other religious groups are Christianity, Jainism and Buddhism.

In 1947, with the dissolution of British India, the region was partitioned between India and Pakistan.
In Pakistan, it includes the Punjab province, Islamabad, parts of Azad Kashmir (namely Bhimber and Mirpur) and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (namely Peshawar known in the Punjab region as Pishore).