Arbab Muhammad Zahir

Arbab Muhammad Zahir (12 October 1945 – 25 July 2016) was a Pakistani politician who served as Member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from 1990 to 1996 and again from 2008 to 2013. He had been a member of the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from 1985 to 1988 and again from 1997 to 1999.

Early life and education Arbab Mohammed Zahir was born to politician Arbab Noor Mohammad Khan on 12 October 1945. In the same election, he ran for the seat of the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as an independent candidate from Constituency PF-7 (Peshawar-VII) and Constituency PF-8 (Peshawar-VIII) but was unsuccessful. He received 4,910 votes from Constituency PF-7 (Peshawar-VII) and lost the seat to Iftikhar Ahmad Khan, a candidate of PPP. He received 3,748 votes from Constituency PF-8 (Peshawar-VIII) and defeated Haji Abdur Raziq, a candidate of Awami National Party (ANP).

He joined the ANP around 1990

He was re-elected to the National Assembly as a candidate of ANP from Constituency NA-4 (Peshawar-IV) in the 2008 Pakistani general election. He received 31,598 voted and defeated Muhammad Azam Afridi, a candidate of PPP. In November 2008, he was inducted into the federal cabinet of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani and was appointed as Minister of State for Defence in 2008 but was removed in 2009 because he could not attend office due to health problems. In June 2010, he was appointed as the federal minister for narcotics in 2010.

He was unable to contest the 2013 Pakistani general election due to health issues.

He died in 2016.