Shahid Khaqan Abbasi

Pakistani politician and businessman

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi (; born 27 December 1958) is a Pakistani politician and businessman who served as the 21st prime minister of Pakistan from August 2017 to May 2018. Abbasi is the senior vice President of the Pakistan Muslim League N (PML N), and has been the secretary general of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), an anti PTI coalition of political parties in Pakistan. He has been a Member of the National Assembly of Pakistan since October 2018. Previously, he served as a member of the National Assembly for 8 non consecutive terms since 1988. Abbasi started his political career after the death of his father in 1988, and since then he has been elected a Member of the National Assembly six times for Constituency NA 50 (Rawalpindi). After the PML N victory in the 1997 general election, he served as Chairman of Pakistan International Airlines until the 1999 Pakistani coup d'état. After the formation of a temporary coalition government following the 2008 general election, he was briefly the Minister for Commerce in the Gillani ministry. After the 2013 general election, he became the Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources in the third Sharif ministry, where he served from 2013 until the disqualification of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after the Panama Papers case decision in July 2017. He was elected as 21st Prime Minister of Pakistan by the National Assembly in August 2017.

Abbasi was born into a Punjabi Muslim family on 27 December 1958 in his hometown of Murree in Murree District, Punjab. He attended Lawrence College in Murree. In 1978, he attended the University of California, Los Angeles, where he received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. Following this, he began a career as an electrical engineer. After graduating from George Washington University, Abbasi became a professional electrical engineer. In May 1988, President Muhammad Zia ul Haq sacked the government of his handpicked Prime Minister, Muhammad Khan Junejo, and prematurely dissolved the National Assembly. Consequently, new parliamentary elections were called for 16 November 1988. Abbasi ran for the National Assembly seat from Constituency NA 36 (Rawalpindi I), which had been held by his father until his death. Abassi was elected with 47,295 votes as an independent candidate. which was newly founded in September 1988 by then Director General of Inter Services Intelligence to counter the PPP. His tenure as a Member of the National Assembly terminated after the National Assembly was dissolved prematurely in August 1990 following the dismissal of the government of Benazir Bhutto by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan. Abbasi ran for a National Assembly seat as a candidate of IJI and was successfully re elected from Constituency NA 36 (Rawalpindi I). He received 80,305 votes against 54,011 votes for PPP candidate Raja Muhammad Anwar. he was made Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Defence, with the dismissal of the Nawaz Sharif government by then President Ghulam Ishaq Khan. New snap elections were called for 6 October 1993. That same year, he was appointed as the chairman of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. During his two years in this office, he is credited with implementing long term and comprehensive reforms and getting the airline out of debt. His tenure as the Chairman of PIA was terminated following the 1999 Pakistani coup d'état, during which then Chief of Army Staff General Pervez Musharraf overthrew Sharif and his existing elected government. Abbasi's tenure as Member of the National Assembly was also terminated with the dissolution of the assembly. Abbasi, along with Sharif, was named in the infamous plane hijacking case. Charges were levelled against him for denying the landing of Musharraf's PIA plane at Karachi's Jinnah International Airport on its way back from Sri Lanka on 12 October 1999, and he was held responsible for conspiring with Sharif to kill Musharraf. He was forced to provide a testimonial statement against Sharif for the hijacking case, but he refused to release the statement. He was also pressured by the Pakistan Army to switch allegiance from Sharif, but he refused. In a 2008 interview, Abbasi claimed that Musharraf himself took control of the plane in 1999. As chairman of PIA, he was accused of 11 million in corruption in the purchase of 200 computers for the airline, however he was acquitted of this in 2008. Abbasi was the PML N candidate for the Constituency NA 50 (Rawalpindi) seat, but lost to PPP candidate Ghulam Murtaza Satti with 63,797 votes (37.21%) to 74,259 (43.31%). Abbasi indicated that the exile of Sharif disappointed the people, People from his constituency claim he contested the election unwillingly, explaining why he lost it. After his defeat, he distanced himself from politics to focus on Airblue Limited, and then went on to become its chief operating officer. After Sharif's return to Pakistan from exile in 2007, Abbasi joined him by defeating PPP candidate Ghulam Murtaza Satti who secured 77,978 votes. After the formation of a coalition government between PPP and PML N with Yousaf Raza Gillani as Prime Minister, Abbasi was inducted into the federal cabinet of Gillani with the status of a federal minister in March 2008 and was appointed as the Minister for Commerce. However, he resigned as Minister for Commerce after the PML N left the PPP led coalition government in May 2008 to lead the movement to impeach Pervez Musharraf and to restore the judiciary after the coalition failed to restore the judiciary, as agreed between PML N and PPP in the Bhurban Accord. Abbasi was reported to have held the cabinet portfolio of Defence Production during his short lived tenure as Commerce Minister, a claim later proved to be untrue.

After the completion of a five year PPP government, an election was scheduled for 11 May 2013. Abbasi ran for a seat in the National Assembly as a candidate of the PML N and successfully retained his seat from Constituency NA 50 (Rawalpindi) for the sixth time with 134,439 votes by defeating PPP candidate Ghulam Murtaza Satti. and was given the task of ending the Pakistan's electricity crisis. and instead advocated and pushed for the liquefied natural gas (LNG) powered electricity production saying that LNG was more cheaper and would save the government billion of dollars. In February 2016, Abbasi in his capacity as Minister for Petroleum signed US$16 billion agreement with QatarEnergy LNG for purchasing 3.75 million metric tons of LNG annually for a period of 15 years, to generate 2,000 MW of electricity and to meet 20% gas requirements of Pakistan where demand for natural gas was 8,000 MMFCD against a supply of 4,000 MMFCD. The deal which made to overcome the country's swelling power crisis was referred to as Pakistan's biggest commercial transaction ever. After the LNG contract received criticism from the opposition parties over price issue and for being non transparent, Abbasi defended the agreement with Qatar saying Pakistan has negotiated cheapest price with Qatar. He said the contract which took 14 months of negotiation with the government of Qatar was made under his supervision and he is responsible for it. In July 2015, Abbasi was accused of issuing illegal contracts worth 220 billion between the period of 2013 and 2015 for the import and distribution of LNG without a proper bidding process, after which the National Accountability Bureau registered a case and began an investigation. He denied the corruption allegations. The case was closed in December 2016 after it was found that all rules were followed during procurement and the bidding process to award the contract was transparent. To minimise the shortage of gas, According to BBC Urdu, Abbasi had not become a part of any major political or financial controversy throughout his time in a ministerial office which is considered a high profile cabinet slot. Therefore, Abbasi was chosen by Sharif as a temporary Prime Minister for 45 days, which would allow two months time for Shehbaz to contest elections from Nawaz's vacated constituency in Lahore, be elected to the National Assembly, and become eligible to be Prime Minister. BBC News noted that Abbasi was selected as the Prime Minister for two reasons. The first for being the least controversial among the PML N leaders, and the second for having links with the Military of Pakistan. On 1 August 2017, Abbasi was elected as Prime Minister of Pakistan by the National Assembly, defeating his rival Naveed Qamar of the PPP by 221 votes to 47. Jamiat Ulema e Islam (F) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement also supported his election. On that same day, he was sworn in as the Prime Minister in an oath taking ceremony at the Presidency Palace. After he took charge, Nawaz Sharif decided that Shehbaz Sharif would remain in Punjab and Abbasi would continue as Prime Minister until the June 2018 general election. According to Rana Sanaullah Khan, PML N senior leadership feared that if Shahbaz Sharif left the post of Chief Ministership of Punjab it would weaken the party's hold in the country's most populous province, which has 183 out of the 342 seats in the National Assembly and plays a crucial role in determining the successive government in Pakistan.

After assuming the office as the Prime Minister, Abbasi, in consultation with Sharif, formed a 43 member cabinet. Of the 43 ministers sworn in on 4 August 2017, 27 were federal ministers and 16 were ministers of state. Except Nisar Ali Khan, Abbasi retained the entire cabinet of his predecessor Nawaz Sharif, Nisar Ali Khan who was Minister for Interior in the previous cabinet refused to join the cabinet of Abbasi, citing differences with the leaders of PML N. The cabinet was criticised by Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf for its large size, but it was praised by The Nation. Reuters said that the cabinet "appears aimed at bolstering support" ahead of the general election. The second part of his cabinet, consisting of two federal ministers and two ministers of state, was sworn in on 10 August 2017, increasing the size of the cabinet to 47. On 13 August 2017, the cabinet was further expanded after Abbasi appointed six advisers. On the following day, five special assistants to the Prime Minister were appointed, thus increasing the cabinet size to 58. Abbasi justified the large size of his cabinet by saying that "he had limited experience of running the affairs of the government, and therefore required more ministers, advisers and special assistants." Abbasi appointed Khawaja Muhammad Asif as a full time Minister for Foreign Affairs, the first since PML N came into power in the 2013 general election. The appointment of a full time Foreign Affair's Minister was welcomed. Previously, Nawaz Sharif had held the portfolio of the Minister for Foreign Affairs himself and was criticised for not appointing a full fledged Foreign Minister. He also inducted a Hindu parliamentarian, Darshan Punshi, into the federal cabinet, the first in more than 20 years. In December 2017, Abbasi appointed the Faisalabad MNA and Parliamentary Finance, Revenue and Privatization Secretary Rana Afzal Khan as the State Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, a position left vacant by Ishaq Dar.

In his first speech as Prime Minister, Abbasi announced that security, tax reform, agriculture, education, health services, infrastructure and development projects, and the country's power crisis would be his top concerns. In his maiden speech, Abbasi specifically promised to widen the tax net, saying "Those who do not pay taxes and live a luxurious life will have to pay taxes now." and efficiency of the government and to accommodate newly inducted cabinet members, Abbasi created seven new ministries. Amongst which the establishment of the long awaited Ministry of Energy was praised. The Ministry was part of PML N's 2013 election manifesto, however its formation had been delayed. Abbasi kept the cabinet portfolio of Energy Minister for himself which was created through the merger of the power wing of the Ministry of Water and Power and the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, an office Abbasi held before becoming Prime Minister. He directed the ministry to utilise the maximum usage of coal reserves from the Thar coalfield and promised to end power outages in the country by November 2017. Reuters noted that Pakistan's embrace of LNG, for which Abbasi has advocated since PML N formed the government in June 2013, has largely been successful. for which he took credit as the former Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources He recommitted his government to resolve the country's energy crisis saying LNG was the only inexpensive solution to overcome the Pakistan's crippling energy crisis. In December 2017, Abbasi as part of his government's policy to promote usage of the liquefied LNG, ordered the conversion of four independent fuel powered energy plants into LNG to reduce the cost of power generation., and imposed a ban on import of furnace oil to make maximum utilisation of LNG powered power plants. He also ordered revamping of the transmission and distribution system and directed to find a permanent solution to Pakistan's chronic circular debt issue.

After the announcement of a new United States policy on Afghanistan by United States President Donald Trump on 21 August 2017, during which he accused Pakistan of supporting state terrorism, with Pakistan's relationship with the United States being strained. On 23 August, Abbasi chaired a meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) which rejected the allegations made by Trump and call the new US policy an attempt “to scapegoat Pakistan”. On 30 August, the Trump administration announced withholding US$255 million in military financial assistance to Pakistan until the latter do more to clamp down on terrorist groups operating inside the country. In September 2017, Abbasi travelled to the United States to speak at the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly. During the visit, he met with Vice president Mike Pence and also had a brief meeting with Trump. Abbasi's meeting with Pence was the highest level meeting between the two states since Trump's new Afghanistan policy was announced in August 2017. Both Abbasi and Pence agreed to work together to carry forward the relationship between the US and Pakistan. and President of Turkey Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the assembly. On 18 October 2017, US Vice president Pence telephoned Abbasi to thank the government of Pakistan for the safe recovery of the Canadian American couple Joshua Boyle and Caitlan Coleman. On 24 October, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made his maiden visit to Pakistan to normalise the bilateral ties which became strained over remarks of Trump in August. Tillerson met Abbasi and reiterated Trump's message that Pakistan must speed up its efforts to against terrorist groups operating within the country and described Pakistan as "incredibly important" player in the region. On 1 December, Abbasi travelled to Russia to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit where he met Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev, Premier of the People's Republic of China Li Keqiang and Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan Sapar Isakov. After Trump acknowledged Jerusalem as Israel's capital, Abbasi attended the emergency conference of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation on Jerusalem in Turkey on 12 December, where he condemned Trump's decision to relocate the embassy to Jerusalem and urged the United States to withdraw its decision. On 29 December, US decided to block US$255 million in security aid to Pakistan. On 1 January 2018, the relations with United States suffered a major setback when President Trump accused Pakistan of deceit in the War on Terror, claiming the United States had "foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies and deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!". The next day, Abbasi chaired a meeting of the NSC which expressed disappointment over Trump remarks and observed that Pakistan cannot be held responsible for US failure in Afghanistan. On 5 January, United States announced suspension of security aid to Pakistan which was estimated to be of at least US$2 billion. Abbasi called US aid insignificant saying “I am not sure what US aid has been talked here. The aid in the last five years at least has been less than $10m a year." On 23 January, Abbasi travelled to Davos to attend the World Economic Forum. He was accompanied by Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif, Health Minister Saira Afzal Tarar, State Minister for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb and State Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Anusha Rahman.

On 31 May 2018, incumbent PML N government completed its five years term becoming the country's second civilian dispensation government to complete a five year term in office (the other being Pakistan Peoples Party). Abbasi was succeeded by caretaker Prime Minister Justice Nasirul Mulk on 1 June 2018 until the country elected the new government in the 2018 general elections which were held on 25 July 2018. It was noted that Abbasi, as Prime Minister, lived in his own home in Islamabad instead of living in the Prime Minister House He was also the Highest taxpayer of Pakistan in 2018 when he was the prime minister of the country.

On 24 June 2018, Abbasi was allocated PML N ticket to contest the 2018 general election from Constituency NA 57 (Rawalpindi I). On 27 June, Abbasi was disqualified for life by an election tribunal in Rawalpindi, under Article 62(1)(f), from contesting election following the rejection of his nomination papers after Abbasi was accused of tampering the documents. However, Abbasi challenged the verdict in Lahore High Court (LHC). On 29 June, his appeal was accepted by a two member bench, which suspended the tribunal's order against Abbasi and allowed him to contest the election. On 14 September 2018, the appellate tribunal issued its detailed verdict on the barring of Abbasi from contesting the 2018 general election and ruled that Abbasi was not honest and sagacious and hence disqualified for life. He ran for the seat of the National Assembly as a candidate of PML N from Constituency NA 57 (Rawalpindi I) in the 2018 general election, but was unsuccessful. He received 124,703 votes and lost the seat to Sadaqat Ali Abbasi. Abbasi alleged rigging was done in the constituency and filed a petition for a recount which was rejected by Returning Officer. He was re elected to the National Assembly as a candidate of PML N from Constituency NA 124 (Lahore II) in a by election held on 14 October 2018. He took oath as a member of the National Assembly on 1 November. Abbasi was granted bail in the Liquified Natural Gas case while Iqbal was granted bail in the Narowal Sports City complex corruption case. Abbasi was on his way to attend a press conference, accompanied by PML N leader Ahsan Iqbal and spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb, when he was arrested on the Thokar Niaz Baig interchange on 18 July 2019. A sedition case was registered against him along with other Pakistan Muslim League (N) leaders in October 2020. On 16 December 2023, he decided to leave the PML(N).

Abbasi belongs to a wealthy political family and hails from Dewal village. He belongs to the Dhund Abbasi clan, which is predominant in northern Punjab. Abbasi is married and has three sons. His sister Sadia Abbasi has been a member of the Senate of Pakistan. He is the first Prime Minister of Pakistan to participate in a Pakistan Air Force mission by flying in an F 16 Fighting Falcon and a military helicopter. In an interview, he said he has been a pilot for more than forty years. In December 2017, he became the first prime minister of Pakistan to board a submarine in the open sea where he conducted submarine diving and surfacing procedures which earned him Pakistan Navy insignia worn by qualified submariners. He is said to be a reserved, media shy person.

Abbasi is a businessman and an aviation expert. He was the owner of Airblue which he founded in 2003,

He is one of the richest parliamentarians in Pakistan, with a net worth of 1.3 billion to 2.3 billion. His assets include shares in Airblue, a house in Islamabad, a hotel business, and land properties in Murree.