Ahsan, Aitzaz

Chaudhary Aitzaz Ahsan (Punjabi, Urdu: چودھری اعتزاز احسن; born 27 September 1945) is a Pakistani politician and lawyer. He served as the Leader of the House in the Senate of Pakistan from 1994 to 1996, and as the Leader of the Opposition from 1996 till 2000 and again from 2012 to 2018. He was elected a member of the Senate of Pakistan from Punjab in 1994. His tenure ended in March 2018. Born in Murree, Ahsan studied law at the Government College, Lahore and received an LLM from the Downing College, Cambridge. Ahsan became the Planning and Development Minister for Punjab in 1975. After the Operation Fair Play coup, Ahsan became a prominent figure of the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy. Ahsan was elected to the National Assembly from Lahore in 1988 and served as the interior minister of Pakistan under Benazir Bhutto's first government and served until 1990. Ahsan was elected as a member of the Senate in 1994. He re-joined the cabinet after Benazir's re-election, and went on to serve as the Minister for Law, Justice and Human Rights until 1997. He served as the minority leader in the Senate between 1996 and 1999. Ahsan was elected to the National Assembly again in 2002, and went on to serve as the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association between 2007 and 2008. Ahsan was elected to the Senate in 2012 and in 2015 became the minority leader.