The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) candidate for Senate chairmanship, Mian Raza Rabbani, was endorsed by the Prime Minister during a lunch hosted by him on Tuesday. Raza Rabbani is a long-time PPP loyalist and a senior Senator from Sindh and has served in many capacities. He served as the federal minister, the minister of state as well as an adviser to the prime minister and to a chief minister.
He is the incumbent chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on National Security and Constitutional Reforms since 2008. Raza Rabbani was born in Lahore, Punjab, on 23 July, 1953. He belonged to a well-known Mian family from Faisalabad. His family moved to Karachi where Rabbani attended the Habib Public School in Karachi, Sindh.
After graduating from the Habib Public School, Rabbani studied law and liberal arts in the Karachi University. During college era Rabbani was politically active, first playing a pioneering role in establishing the National Organisation of Progressive Students and later held the chairmanship of People's Students Federation (PSF) - a student body directly linked to the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) founded in the 1970s to promote student politics in the country. Rabbani obtained his LLB degree while in jail during General Zia-ul-Haq's military rule.
In 1988, Rabbani earned BA (Hons) in Economics and a LLB degree in civil law from the Karachi University. His father, Group Captain (Retd) Ata Rabbani served as the first ADC (aide de camp) to the founder of Pakistan Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Starting his career in the national politics through PPP in the 1980s, Rabbani served as an advisor to Sindh's chief minister from 1988 to 1990. He was elected to the Senate several times, most recently in March 2012, and also served as federal minister of state for law and justice during Benazir Bhutto's second government.
During 2008-2013, he was first inducted as the federal minister for inter-provincial co-ordination in November 2008 but resigned after PPP's top brass nominated Farooq H Naek for the post of Senate chairman. He was again inducted as minister with the same portfolio in February 2011 but resigned in May 2011 over the PPP leadership's decision to make Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) a partner in the coalition government. Rabbani is highly regarded in political circles and is known as ideologically driven.
Among Rabbani's major achievements is the 18th Constitutional Amendment of which he was the chief architect. As chairman of the parliamentary committee on Balochistan, Rabbani was closely involved in drafting of the Aghaz-i-Huqooq-i-Balochistan package which was widely regarded as a step forward in addressing the province's woes. Rabbani also helped the 2008-2013 PPP-led coalition government in developing foreign and domestic policies and chaired the Parliamentary Committee on National Security which redrafted the terms of engagement with the United States.
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