Raza Rabbani

Mian Raza Rabbani (Punjabi, Urdu: ; born 23 July 1953) is a Pakistani politician and lawyer who served as the 7th Chairman of the Senate of Pakistan from March 2015 to March 2018. He has been affiliated with the Pakistan Peoples Party since 1968.

He has been elected a Senator six times since 1993 from Sindh. He was a close aide to Benazir Bhutto who had appointed him the party's deputy secretary general in 1997 and leader of the opposition in the Senate in 2005. Rabbani has served as Minister of Inter Provincial Coordination, Minister of State for Law and Justice, and Leader of the House and Opposition in the Senate. Raza Rabbani was unanimously elected as the Chairman of the Senate of Pakistan in March 2015 and he served until March 2018, when he was succeeded by Sadiq Sanjrani.

Early life and education

Rabbani was born on 23 July 1953 in Lahore, Punjab into a well educated Punjabi Arain family. His father Mian Atta Rabbani an officer in Royal Indian Air Force during the British Raj and first commissioned pilot in Pakistan Air Force, after independence. He served as Muhammad Ali Jinnah's Aide-de-Camp. He spent his childhood in Karachi. in 1976 and 1981, respectively.

Rabbani was politically active during his university years at the University of Karachi He is said to have affiliated with Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) since 1968.

In 1996, he became the Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate. and appointed as Advisor to the Prime Minister on Inter-Provincial Coordination where he served until 9 March 2009 when he resigned against the decision of PPP to nominate Farooq Naek as chairman of the Senate. and appointed as the Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination and Human Rights where he briefly served from February 2011 until his resignation in May 2011.

Later he went on to serve as the chairman of the parliamentary committee for constitutional reform and chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security.

PPP later announced to boycott the presidential elections citing the decision of Supreme Court.

Rabbani has been awarded Nishan-e-Imtiaz for his parliamentary services.

Views on national security

Despite his disagreements with PPP's leadership, Senator Rabbani was named by the President to be the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security and the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reform in 2008.

His services and credentials led to his simultaneous appointment to the chairmanship of the Beginning of the Rights of Balochistan where he worked on presenting a package to redress the problems of the Balochistan Province to the joint sessions of the Parliament. Despite his recommendations, none of the provisions in the packages would be carried out by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani who would later entangle with the Supreme Court over the missing persons scandal. In 2003, Rabbani demonstrated his opposition against the Iraq war in 2003, over the issue of its nuclear program.

About the atomic proliferation issues, Rabbani criticised the President Pervez Musharraf in the news channels and publicly supported the case of Dr. AQ Khan against President Musharraf.

In April 2011, Rabbani also heavily criticised the US over their drone operations in North-Western Pakistan in the Parliament, commenting that United States is following a major violation of international law and human rights.

Writings and political philosophy

Rabbani has written in support of socialism, communism, constitutional justice, and left-wing ideas. In 2003, he authored a book, "LFO: a fraud on the Constitution", in a direct opposition to President Pervez Musharraf and a scheme of legitimising his rule.

In response to insurgency situation in the country, Rabbani reputedly declared that "Politico-religious parties and right-wing political groups are conniving with the establishment to damage and weaken left-wing parties." His statement came during the 2013 general elections, in which, left-wing parties were under immense pressure from the right-wing insurgent groups to limit their political campaigns.

Writings

He is the author of the following books: