Imran Reza Ansari
Imran Reza Ansari is a Kashmiri politician and a Shia cleric, succeeding his father Iftikhar Hussain Ansari after the latter's death.
He is the nephew of former MLA Zadibal Abid Hussain Ansari and Grandson of Molvi Jawad Ansari.
He won elections from the Pattan constituency on PDP's ticket and was nominated as Minister of Information Technology, Technical Education and Youth Services and Sports. After disagreements with the leadership of the party, in 2018, Ansari left the PDP and joined the People's Conference .
He is the President of the All Jammu and Kashmir Shia Association. Ansari is the Wakil of Ayatollah Sistani, a post which he received upon succeeding his father, in the religious and political spheres.
He is also the representative of Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi.
Early life and education
Imran Reza Ansari was born to Kashmir's influential Shia religious cleric Iftikhar Hussain Ansari on 7 March 1972. He is elder to his brother Irfan Reza Ansari and younger to his sister. Raza Ansari had his matriculation from Tyndale Biscoe School in Srinagar. He then went to Jamia Millia Islamia with arts as his subject. Later he had his masters from same institution, where he qualified with a master's degree in political science.Being a member of a clerical and religious family he was aware of his forthcoming responsibilities. And so, after qualifying masters, he went to study Islamic Doctrine at Howzeh Zainabiyyah in Syria, while also simultaneously achieving a Degree in the Arabic Language at the Department of Linguistics at the University Of Damascus. He lived and studied there for about 8 years. After which, Ansari spend some time studying theoogical courses at Lebanon. And finally, he then settled in Qom, to study at the Qom Hawza & Al-Mustafa International University to study Islamic Philosophy and Theology.
Ansari returned from Qom after studying there for about 5 years.