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Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri

Mian Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri (born 1941) was the Foreign Minister of Pakistan from 2002 to 2007. He comes from a well-known political family of Punjab; his grandfather Maulana Abdul Qadir Kasuri was a leader of the Indian National Congress and his father Mahmud Ali Kasuri was also in the Congress (until 1940) and was sentenced in 1930 to four months' imprisonment. Mahmud Kasuri was briefly a member of Z.A. Bhutto's Cabinet.

Khurshid M. Kasuri belongs to one of the old political families of Pakistan. His father, the late Mian Mahmud Ali Kasuri, was also a member of the Federal Cabinet. He is the grandson of the late Maulana Abdul Qadir Kasuri who was one of the leading lawyers of the day as well as a valiant freedom fighter against the British colonial rule in the sub-continent. The late Maulana was one of the leaders of the Khilafat and independence movements and remained in prison for many years because of his opposition to British colonial rule. His father, Mian Mahmud Ali Kasuri, and his uncles, the late Maulana Mohammad Ali Kasuri, who was a triple first mathematics wrangler from Cambridge and Maulana Mohyuddin Kasuri, also took active part in the freedom movement. They were arrested on numerous occasions during the independence movement. His father, the late Mian Mahmud Ali Kasuri, was one of the top lawyers and politicians of the country and was widely regarded as the father of the human rights movement in Pakistan . He was one of the few politicians in the country to give up high office on a point of principle when he resigned as Federal Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs and Deputy Leader of the National Assembly due to differences on political and constitutional matters with the then government. Mian Mahmud Ali Kasuri's contribution towards the framing of the original 1973 Constitution is widely acknowledged. He was born in Lahore in 1941.

Throughout his academic career he had a uniformly excellent record, which culminated in his topping in the B.A (Hons) Examination of the Punjab University in 1961. At the Government College , he was awarded many academic prizes and Rolls of Honour. After completing his education at home, he proceeded abroad for higher studies. He did his tripos in Law from Cambridge University. After Cambridge he was admitted to Oxford University for post-graduate work in Public Administration and Political Science. He took French Civilization courses at the Sorbonne University in Paris and the University of Nice in France. He was called to the Bar from Gray's Inn, London . On a lecture tour of the United States, he lectured at leading American Universities in their South Asian and Political Science Faculties. He was also the author of a report for the Government of Pakistan on how Pakistan studies could be promoted at American Universities; large parts of his report were implemented by the government.

Immediately on his return from abroad after completing his higher education, he started his political career by taking an active part in the political movement launched by the combined opposition parties during the days of Field Marshal Muhammad Ayub Khan for the restoration of democracy. The Pakistan government sent Mian Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri on official assignments to U.K. and U.S.A. in 1972 to represent Pakistan 's point of view on issues of concern to Pakistan following the Bangladesh tragedy.

He entered politics at an early age and joined the Tehrik-e-Istiqlal. He is the former Secretary General of the Tehrik-e-Istiqlal. He has been arrested on innumerable occasions during his long political career in the struggle for democracy. After the government of General Zia-ul-Haq went back on its promise to hold general elections in the country, leading political parties got together under the banner of the MRD for the purpose of holding general elections, restoration of fundamental rights of the citizens, removal of restrictions placed on the free functioning of the press and the establishment of an independent judiciary. He was arrested on numerous occasions for taking part in a movement launched by the political parties in February 1981 for the achievement of the above objectives. Earlier, he was also arrested during the PNA Movement.

After the formation of the Peoples Democratic Alliance prior to the 1990 elections, Mian Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri was unanimously elected as the first Secretary General of the PDA. The PDA was then the main opposition alliance in Pakistan and it consisted of the Pakistan Peoples Party, the Tehrik-e-Istiqlal, the Nifaz-e-Fiqah-e-Jaferia, the Pakistan Muslim League (Qasim group) and the Pukhtoonkhawa Qoumi Party. He was appointed Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs in the interim government of Prime Minister Mir Balakh Sher Mazari. He represented the Tehrik-e-Istiqlal in that government. Just prior to the 1993 elections, the PDA broke up and the Tehrik-e-Istiqlal left the PDA and entered into an alliance with the Pakistan Muslim League. He was the Vice President of the Pakistan Muslim League. In the 1997 elections he was elected to the National Assembly from Kasur (NA-106). Currently, he represents NA 140 in the National Assembly. He was the Chairman of the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Information and Media Development and was also a member of the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Foreign Relations.

Mian Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri is one of the few members of the Pakistan Muslim League Parliamentary Party and the Central Working Committee who always expressed his views on all the national issues frankly and fearlessly regardless of whether the government of the day liked his views or not. For example, his views during the judicial crisis, on the issue of the impeachment of the former President Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari and on the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution were expressed very strongly and were covered and commented upon extensively by the media at that time. The 15th Amendment, particularly as originally presented, was strongly objected to by him. It was primarily due to his efforts and that of some of his colleagues that the government had to make an amendment in the original Bill, which contained provisions, which were highly detrimental to the federal and democratic structure of the Constitution including provisions relating to making amendments in the Constitution. He was so determined not to let the bill pass in its original shape that he threatened to resign unless the bill was amended (in fact he did resign – the resignation was torn up in a stormy meeting of the Parliamentary party by other parliamentarians).

Prior to his appointment as Foreign Minister he had represented Pakistan on different occasions. As early as 1972, on an official visit to the United States of America, he represented Pakistan in talks with the Administration and the relevant Congressional leaders.

He visited Iran and other Middle Eastern countries in October 1977 under the leadership of the Air Marshal Muhammad Asghar Khan, the then President of the Tehreek-e-Istaqlal. The visit contributed significantly to the improvement of relations between Pakistan and the countries visited by the delegation. During the visit to Iran the Tehreek leaders held talks with the then Shah of Iran, Mohammad Raza Shah Pehlvi.

Mian Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri visited the Peoples' Republic of China as a member of the Pakistan Muslim League's delegation in 1996. This delegation was invited by the Communist Party of China and was received by the top leadership of the Party. He has also attended the International Parliamentary Union Conferences held in Seoul and in Cairo in 1997 as a member of the Pakistan Parliamentary Delegations.

He was sent as the Prime Minister's Special Envoy to various important countries including Russia, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium and the European Union to explain Pakistan 's point of view on the important developments in 1998 and 1999.

He has been an active participant at various international conference and events as a member of delegations from Pakistan, thus bringing to the Foreign Office adequate knowledge about international relations and is commensurately attired with the nuances of Pakistan’s Foreign policy. As a moderate liberal, Kasuri has assiduously cultivated Pakistan's minorities.

Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri (Kasur.20fr.com)