Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad

Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad (; born 6 November 1950 ) is a Pakistani politician who currently serves as the Interior Minister of Pakistan, in office since 11 December 2020. He was previously the Minister of Railways from 20 August 2018 to 14 December 2020. Ahmed has been a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan since August 2018 and is the current leader of the Awami Muslim League. Previously, he was a member of the National Assembly between March 1985 and
Early life and education.
Ahmed was born on 6 November 1950 in Babra Bazaar in Rawalpindi, Punjab.<ref name="pildat1/dob"></ref><ref name="brecorder/profile"></ref><ref name="Dawn/28april2013"></ref> 
He received his early education in from Polytechnic College and graduated from Government Gordon College. He completed his Bachelor of Laws at the University of Punjab. Ahmed was a leader of the student union at Gordon College later helped financially by dhanraj sehgal and shiekh Hira who reconverted to Sikh in India, this helped Rashid becoming a strongman of Pindi.
Political career.
Ahmed began his political career during his student years and was actively involved against the military regime of Ayub Khan.
In the 1985 Pakistani general election which was held on non-party basis, he was elected as the member of the National Assembly for the first time from Rawalpindi.
In the 1988 Pakistani general election, he was re-elected as the member of the National Assembly for the second time from Rawalpindi on Islamic Democratic Alliance (IDA) ticket.
In the 1990 Pakistani general election, he was re-elected as the member of the National Assembly for the third time from Rawalpindi on IDA ticket and became the Minister of Sports. In his tenure Pakistan won the world cup in 1992 under the captaincy of Imran Khan.
In the 1993 Pakistani general election, he was re-elected as the member of the National Assembly for the fourth time from Rawalpindi on PML (N) ticket.
In the 1997 Pakistani general election, he was re-elected as the member of the National Assembly for the fifth time from Rawalpindi.
For the 2002 Pakistani general election, PML-N refused to allot ticket to Ahmed for running in the election. Ahmed was re-elected in the 2002 election as the member of the National Assembly for the sixth time from NA-55 (Rawalpindi) as independent candidate. Later, he joined PML-Q.<ref name="dawn/23nov2002"></ref> Since Ahmad was considered a close aide of Pervez Musharraf therefore during his sixth tenure as member of the National Assembly, he was appointed as Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting in the Zafarullah Khan Jamali cabinet in November 2002. As minister for information, Ahmed, on public places, had assumed the role of the spokesman of Pervez Musharraf<ref name="dawn/19feb2008"></ref> and advocate of government of Zafarullah Khan Jamali.<ref name="dawn/25nov2002"></ref>
In May 2006, he was made Federal Minister for Railways. He also served as Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly of Pakistan. In the 2008 Pakistani general election, Ahmed ran for the seat of National Assembly on a Pakistan Muslim League-Q ticket however, lost the election for the first time<ref name="nation/29feb2008"></ref> from both of his Rawalpindi constituencies, NA-55 and NA-56 to PML-N.<ref name="dailytimes/20feb2008"></ref> There were rumours that Ahmed had fled to Spain following the defeat.<ref name="newsweek/18feb2008"></ref> However, these allegations were later discovered to be false. In an interview, Ahmed said defeat in the election was due to raid on Lal Masjid and that "he had promised to quit politics after 2008 elections but his defeat had changed his mind."
He later left PML-Q where he was a senior vice-president and created his own political party Awami Muslim League (AML) and self-appointed himself as president of the party.
In February 2010, while Ahmed was preparing to run for the seat of National Assembly in by-election in NA-55, Rawalpindi, he was attacked by unknown gunmen at his election office in Rawalpindi. It was believed Taliban militants were behind the attack which injured Ahmed and killed three others known to be his bodyguards.<ref name="dawn/9feb2010"></ref> Ahmed earlier supported President Musharraf's military operation against the militants in Federally Administered Tribal Areas and the Siege of Lal Masjid<ref name="nytimes/8feb2010"></ref> and has been on the hit list of militants. He was defeated in the by-elections by a wide margin.<ref name="dawn/11may2013"></ref>
In the 2013 Pakistani general election, Ahmed made an electoral alliance with Imran Khan to support each other in their respective constituencies in the election. It was reported that Ahmed has requested for a merger between his party and the PTI however PTI decided not to go for an alliance with any political party.<ref name="tribune/8aug2012"></ref> He was re-elected as the member of the National Assembly for the seventh time from Rawalpindi.<ref name="dailytimes/22may2013"></ref> In public circles, he is known for making witty remarks and political predictions. He is also known for switching political allegiances from one party to another. In July 2017, he was chosen by the PTI as a candidate for the post of Prime Ministership of Pakistan, following the resignation of outgoing Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after Panama Papers case decision. He secured 33 votes in the 342 seat parliament and was unsuccessful. He was re-elected to the National Assembly as a candidate of AML from Constituency NA-62 (Rawalpindi-VI) in 2018 Pakistani general election.
On 18 August, Imran Khan formally announced his federal cabinet structure and Ahmad was named as Minister for Railways. On 20 August 2018, he was sworn in as Federal Minister for Railways in the federal cabinet of Prime Minister Imran Khan. In 2019, as railway minister, Rasheed severed rail transport links between India and Pakistan due to the revocation of special status for Kashmir.
In December 2020, in cabinet reshuffle, he was given portfolio of minister for interior .
Controversies.
In 2004, Ahmed during his tenure as Minister for Information, Saima Baloch was replaced with Shaukat Aziz as minister-in-waiting who would receive then visiting Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee after Indian foreign ministry's objection to the nomination of Ahmad as minister-in-waiting.
In 2005, "India Today" reported that Yasin Malik claimed that Ahmed had run a jihadi camp at Fateh Jung in Punjab, where around 3,500 jihadis were trained. Ahmed denied running such a camp.<ref name="indiatoday/27june2005"></ref> Later it was reported that Yasin Malik retracted his statements and denied he had ever said that Ahmed running camps.<ref name="dawn/25june2005"></ref><ref name="outlookindia/27june2005"></ref>
In 2005, during Ahmed's tenure as Minister for Information, he applied for permit to travel to Srinagar, in his personal capacity to visit the graves of his grandparents and meet his relatives in Jammu & Kashmir. However Indian denied Ahmed's request to travel to Srinagar.
In 2012, Ahmed was detained at Houston airport concerning his links with Lashkar-e-Taiba and with Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, an alleged mastermind of 2008 Mumbai attacks. He was released after five hours of interrogation after official protest from Pakistani Ambassador in United States.
In 2014, Ahmed was off-loaded from a Toronto bound PIA flight due to non-issuance of clearance by the Canadian authorities.
See also.
Sheikh Rasheed video leaked on internet by a twitter account