Nawaz Sharif Biography

Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif is the current Prime Minster of Pakistan; he is in office since 2013. A veteran politician, he has previously served as the Prime Minister on two other occasions as well—from 1990 to 1993 and from 1997 to 1999. Born into a well-to-do family in Lahore, he entered his family business upon his graduation. His father founded the Ittefaq Group of Industries which is today a large conglomerate dealing in steel, sugar, paper, and textiles. Already a successful industrial by the time he entered politics, he put his astute administrative sense to good use in his political career as well. He forayed into politics when the then Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto started implementing nationalization policies which threatened Sharif’s thriving family business. Initially his focus was only on saving his business but eventually he developed a deep interest in the country’s politics and decided to pursue a political career. He continued working on rebuilding his business along with his involvement in politics. When he first became the Prime Minister in 1990 he attempted to create an economy based on privatization and economic liberalization in order to pave the way for Pakistan’s rapid industrial development. In 1999, he was deposed from the office in a coup by the then Army Chief Pervez Musharraf and sent to exile in Saudi Arabia. However, Nawaz Sharif came nack to Pakistan in 2007 and eventually regained power in 2013.