Aslam Raisani

Nawab Muhammad Aslam Raisani (Urdu: نواب محمد اسلم خان رئیسانی‎) (born 5 July 1955 in Sarawan, Balochistan) was four times elected a member of the Provincial Assembly of Balochistan and served as the Chief Minister of Balochistan from 9 April 2008 until 14 January 2013.

Family

Raisani is the chief of the Raisani tribe of the Sarawan area,^[1] succeeding, as eldest son, to the late Nawab Ghous Baksh Khan Raisani.

Business career

He maintains an interest in developing his own landed estates and is President of the Chamber of Agriculture in Balochistan.^[1] He is working to introduce modern technology and agricultural methods to his own estates and those of his friends and allies. He also has an interest in preserving wildlife and is a lifetime member of the Wildlife Conservation Society.^[1]

Political career

Raisani began his political career with the Pakistani National Party. In 1989, he was first elected to the Provincial Assembly of Balochistan. He was a member of the Provincial Assembly until 1990, when the provincial assemblies and National Assembly of Pakistan were dissolved by then President of Pakistan Ghulam Ishaq Khan.

When elections were held in 1990, Raisani was again elected to the Provincial Assembly, on the National Party ticket. In 1999, he joined the Pakistan Peoples Party and has remained a member since. In 1999, he was elected for the third time. In the general elections of 2008, he was elected for the fourth time, from the constituency of Mastung/Quetta (PB-38) and became the parliamentary leader in the assembly.

On 9 April 2008, Raisani was elected as the Chief Minister of Baluchistan, running unopposed.^[1] On 14 January 2013, upon the imposition of Governor's Rule following the January 2013 Pakistan bombings, Raisani was dismissed as Chief Minister by the Prime Minister of Pakistan, under Article 234 of the Constitution of Pakistan.

On Thursday 1 November 2012, media reports claimed that Raisani party's membership had been cancelled by the Peoples Party Kalat Division, for continually violating party policies.^[2] However, he denied these reports, and said that his party membership had not been cancelled.^[3]

Controversy

In mid-2010, Raisani stated that he holds a master's degree in political science.^[4] When questioned by reporters investigating false claims of educational credentials in Pakistani politics, he stated, "A degree is a degree! Whether fake or genuine, it's a degree! It makes no difference!".^[5] Subsequently in the same year, he rejected allegations of corruption against him by asserting that there was "nothing wrong" with corruption.^[6] Raisani once turned up at a public function in a drunken state, which reflected poorly on his image in conservative Pakistani society.^[7]

Since September 2012, there has been an increasing outcry against Raisani, following his government's failure to maintain law and order in Baluchistan, resulting in the mass murder of the Shiah Hazaras community there^[8]

There have been numerous instances of people disappearing in Baluchistan and never returning. Many people have accused the government of doing nothing in missing-persons cases with a majority of cases being left unsolved, and people have accused federal agencies of Pakistan of being involved with the Government of Baluchistan in the abduction of suspected separatist militants.^[9][10]

In September 2014, the National Accountability Bureau of Pakistan started investigating charges of massive corruption against Raisani.^[11]

References

External links

• Government Profile