Who is Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s next choice for PM?

Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Hussain Qureshi Lukhkha is the current Foreign Minister of Pakistan, who has been nominated by his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) as the next Prime Ministerial candidate after Imran Khan was voted out. 

Qureshi was born in Multan, Punjab, and went on to receive a Master of Arts degree from Cambridge. He comes from a prominent political Sufi Muslim family that’s well off. 

With a long career in politics, Qureshi was already considered for the Prime Minister’s job while he was a member of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). However, he was appointed as the Minister of Foreign Affairs then and eventually left the party. 

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Now, with PTI, Qureshi might be contesting again. The married father to a son and two daughters has been reportedly dissatisfied with Imran Khan’s actions as of late. Before the no-trust vote, he had already added “former” before his designation of Foreign Minister, on his Twitter bio. 

Showing a spine 

When speaking in the Parliament, Qureshi tried defending Khan, and in the process clarified his stance regarding Pakistan’s relations with India and the United States. 

Speaking of India, Qureshi raised the Jammu and Kashmir issue, saying that the opposition always urges bilateral talks on the matter. He also referred to the recent missile misfire, saying “When India fired their missile into Pakistan accidentally, I said that that accidental missile could have led to an accidental war. Are human rights violations not happening in Indian occupied Kashmir?”, Hindustan Times reported. 

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Qureshi has also made it clear that though Khan’s visit to Moscow was ill-timed, the US had no right to call Pakistan and instruct them not to attend the meeting. Qureshi exclaimed, “where does this happen that a sovereign state is stopped from a bilateral visit and which self-respecting society accepts this?” 

The PTI member also criticized the difference in the way the US deals with Pakistan and India.