Nilofar Bakhtiar

Nilofar Bakhtiar (born 9 September 1957) is a public official in Pakistan. She was Federal Minister for Tourism in Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz's cabinet until a scandal forced her to resign. She remains a senator. Bakhtiar has worked toward improving women's social status, as well as working in areas of health and education.

Early life and education Bakhtiar was born in Hadali to a Punjabi Muslim family. The family has a background of social work and military service. She later joined Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in 2018.

Family Married to Ahmad Bakhtiar, has two sons and one daughter.

Bakhtiar described the hug as a congratulatory pat after her parachute jump. "It was just a pat because he felt so proud of me, I did it for a good cause. I did not have any practice of parajumping. I thought it was brave on my part." The jump had been intended to raise money for victims of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake.

On 21 May 2007, according to some sources Nilofar Bakhtiar announced her resignation as Tourism Minister, over the parachute controversy. Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz rejected this resignation but Bakhtiar insisted and quit. She planned to sue the clerics behind the fatwa.

Ms Bakhtiar complained of a campaign of intimidation against her, and had told a Senate Standing Committee that her life was under threat. Ms Bakhtiar said she was disappointed by her Cabinet colleagues who had failed to stand by her.