Mushtaq Minhas


Raja Mushtaq Ahmed Minhas is a Kashmiri politician who is former minister of Information, Tourism and Culture in the AJK assembly. He is a member of the 8th Legislative Assembly of AJK.

Career

Education

Mushtaq Minhas studied at Govt Boys High School Bagh, Forman Christian College, in Lahore, from where he gained a Bachelor of Arts degree. He was also the vice-president of the Jamaat-e-Islami's students' union Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba. Mushtaq Minhas received Master of Arts degree in Mass Communication from University of the Punjab, Lahore, in 1992.

Journalism

Minhas was a member of the federal executive council of PFUJ and a founder of the National Press Club Islamabad. He is also a former president of the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Press Club. However, he was named by a PFUJ investigation committee of swallowing a copy of the PFUJ elections result and causing mayhem.
He has worked with different leading news organisations as a reporter, senior reporter and chief reporter. He was elected as a secretary of Rawalpindi-Islamabad press club for six terms.
Minhas was co-host, along with Nusrat Javed, of Bolta Pakistan, a current affairs political talk show, on AAJ TV. He left the program to join BOL TV, but left shortly afterwards to join politics.

Political career

Minhas joined the Pakistan Muslim League (N) in March 2016, after which he announced his intention to quit journalism. He was elected Member of the National Assembly from the Bagh LA-14 constituency defeating Sardar Qamer Zaman Khan of PPP. He was appointed as Minister of Information, Tourism and Culture.

Controversy

His act of posing with a shotgun on Twitter while reacting to the Indian Army Chief created a controversy, particularly since he was a serving minister. His act of swallowing the election results during elections to the journalism body was criticised by an investigation committee of Pakistan Federation of Unions of Journalists, which accused him of causing mayhem.