Ahmad Mukhtar
Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar was a Pakistani politician and businessman who served as the Defence Minister of Pakistan in the PM Yousaf Raza Gillani-led cabinet. He also owned Servis Group and founded Shalamar Hospital.
He was a central leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party from Gujrat District and he defeated Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain from Gujrat NA-105 in 1993 and 2008, the leader of PML-Q party, who was allied with President Pervez Musharraf, in the Pakistan's 2008 elections.
Early life and education
Mukhtar was born 22 June 1946 in Lahore to Chaudhry Muhammad Hussain, who served as the Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board in 1977-1978, into a Punjabi Gujjar family with roots in Gujrat. Mukhtar did his Master of Science degree in Operational Management from California, United States and a Diploma in Plastic Technology from West Germany. Mukhtar was also a graduate of Forman Christian College University. Mukhtar was fluent in Urdu, Punjabi, English and German.Political career
He was a businessman who started his political career in 1990 on PPP platform.He was an industrialist and served as Commerce Minister in the 1993–1996 Benazir Bhutto government. He was considered the most likely candidate to be the next Prime Minister of Pakistan, along with Ameen Faheem, Yousaf Raza Gillani and Shah Mehmood Qureshi, but was later denied, when Yousaf Raza Gillani was announced as the new PM on 22 March 2008. He became the Defence Minister in the coalition government of PPP, PML-N, ANP and JUI-F formed after 2008 elections on 31 March 2008.
Personal life
His brother Ahmad Saeed served as PIA Managing director and PIA chairman during the General Pervez Musharraf era. Ahmad Mukhtar himself took the role of chairman PIA from May 2008.He was also the brother-in-law of former Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, Ijaz Butt.