Jahangir Tareen

Jahangir Tareen was born on July 4, 1953, in Comilla, a city that was once part of East Bengal in Pakistan but is now situated in Bangladesh. However, despite their stay in Comilla due to his father Allah Nawaz Tareen's posting, the Tareen family originally originates from Pishin in Balochistan. They are affiliated with the Pashtun Tribe Tareen and settled in South Punjab, specifically in the vicinity of Multan, many years ago.

Tareen’s father, Allah Nawaz Tareen, was a police officer who retired as a Deputy Inspector General.[10] His mother, Zahida Khan Tareen, died in 2004. His younger brother, Alamgir Tareen, a businessman who operated one of the largest water purification plants in the country and who was also the founder and owner of the Multan Sultans franchise in the Pakistan Super League, committed suicide in 2023, at the age of 63.[11]

His paternal cousin, Shaukat Tarin, is a banker who has served as the country's Finance Minister twice, including under Imran Khan from 2021 - 2022.[12]

His maternal cousins include Humayun Akhtar Khan and Haroon Akhtar Khan, both influential politicians and the sons of General Akhtar Abdur Rahman, who served as the DG-ISI under Zia-ul-Haq.[13]

He graduated from Forman Christian College, Lahore in 1971[14] and received an MBA degree from the University of North Carolina, USA, in 1974.[1]

He is an entrepreneur by profession and prior to entering in politics, he had also been a lecturer, and a banker.[1] He headed the Punjab Task Force on Agriculture from 1997 to 1999 and the Punjab Task Force on Wheat Procurement and Marketing from 2001 to 2002.[1]

Tareen is considered one of the wealthiest politicians in Pakistan,[15] with assets worth around Rs 400 billion;[14] he owns thousands of acres of farmland and some of the largest sugar mills and many other business entities in Pakistan.[16]

In an interview with Newsweek Pakistan, Tareen said he “Doesn’t belong to a political family, but he married into one.” [17] He married Amina Tareen, the daughter of Syed Hasan Mahmood and the sister of Makhdoom Ahmed Mehmood, both having been seasoned politicians, especially influential, in the Rahim Yar Khan District of Punjab, where the family has "considerable, spiritual and feudal influence."[13]

He began his political career in 2002[17][14] after he was elected to the National Assembly in the 2002 Pakistani general elections from Constituency NA-195 on the ticket of Pakistan Muslim League (Q).[1][18][15]

He served as special adviser on agriculture and social sector initiatives to then Chief Minister of Punjab Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi.[15][17] In August 2004, he was inducted into the federal cabinet[1] and was made Federal Minister for Industries and Production[15][19] in the Shaukat Aziz ministry where he remained until 2007.[16][14] His sugar mills flourished during his tenure as Minister for Industries.[20]

In the 2008 Pakistani general election, Tareen was re-elected as a member of the National Assembly for the second time from Constituency NA-195 on the seat of Pakistan Muslim League (F).[18][21][14]

He was the parliamentary leader of PML-F in the National Assembly.[22] Later he formed a forward block known as "Tareen's group" which comprised several seasoned politicians.[23] In 2011, he said he was to launch his own political party consisting of politicians free from corruption charges.[14] He later resigned from the National Assembly[21] and in November 2011, joined Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf along with a number of associates, saying that his vision was similar to PTI's.[14][22][24][25][26]

In September 2013, Imran Khan appointed Tareen as the Secretary General of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf[16][27]

In the 2013 Pakistani general election, Tareen ran for a seat on the National Assembly from Constituency NA-154 (Lodhran) on the seat of PTI, but was unsuccessful.[15][18][28] Where has heavily invested.[16][15]

In the 2015 by-elections, he was re-elected as a member of the National Assembly for the third time from Constituency NA-154 (Lodhran) on the seat of PTI.[28] The seat became vacant after Tareen filed a petition in which he made accusations of irregularities in the constituency during the 2013 general election.[29][30][31][32]

In 2016, PML-N filed a reference to disqualify Tareen from his National Assembly seat for "submitting false statements with the Election Commission of Pakistan".[33] In 2017, ECP rejected disqualification references against Tareen.[34]

On 15 December 2017, the Supreme Court of Pakistan disqualified Tareen from serving as a member of parliament under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution due to dishonesty in financial declarations. It also noted that he had engaged in conduct that could have been prosecuted as insider trading, but he was protected from such prosecution due to a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan.[35] A subsequent judgment held that disqualification under Article 62(1)(f) is for life, but Tareen claimed that this judgment did not apply in his case.[36]

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