Pervaiz Rasheed

Pervaiz Rashid is a Pakistani politician who served as the Federal Minister of Information, Broadcasting, and National Heritage and Minister for Law, Justice and Human Rights in the Third Sharif ministry. A member of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), Rashid has been a member of the Senate of Pakistan since 2009 and previously served as the Chairman of the Pakistan Television Corporation from 1997 to 1999 during the Sharif's government in 1997.

Considered a representative of the left wing of the PML-N, he has previously described himself as a Marxist and as an admirer of Che Guevara and Meraj Muhammad Khan.

Early life and education

Rashid belongs to a Pashtun-Kakazai family. He studied at the Government Gordon College, Rawalpindi where alongside fellow politician Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad he was a member of the debating club.

Political career Pakistan People's Party Rashid started his political career as a student leader from Pakistan Peoples Party student wing, PSF, from Gordon College Rawalpindi.

When Zulfikar Ali Bhutto imposed martial law in 1970, as he refused to hand power to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Rashid, despite being a PPP supporter, protested and was eventually put in jail. He would later become one of the founders of PPP Rawalpindi, mainly to counter the rise of Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad, his once college mate. Later he'd be appointed the personal secretary to the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and while he was mostly inactive in politics during the rule of General Zia-ul-Haq, he'd re-emerge in the mid-1990s as a close aide of Shehbaz Sharif, being recommended by Nazir Naji. In November 2013, he was given the additional charge of Minister of Law, Justice and Human Rights.

He was re-elected to the Senate of Pakistan as a candidate of PML (N) in the 2015 Pakistani Senate election.

He was made to resign in October 2016 from his position as Minister for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage following the report which alleged his involvement in leaking contents of a high-profile security meeting.