Farhatullah Babar
Parliamentarian Farhatullah Babar |
|
|---|---|
| Spokesperson of Presidential Office | |
| In office 9 September 2008 – Incumbent |
|
| President | Asif Ali Zardari |
| Prime Minister | Yousaf Raza Gillani |
| Preceded by | Major-General Rashid Qureshi |
| Majority | Pakistan Peoples Party |
| President of Pakistan Engineering Council | |
| In office 1983–1994 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born | Farhatullah Baber Peshawar, North-West Frontier Province (now-Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, West-Pakistan (present-day Pakistan) |
| Nationality |  Pakistan |
| Political party | Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) |
| Residence | Islamabad, Islamabad Capital Territory |
| Alma mater | University of Engineering and Technology of Peshawar (B.Eng and M.Eng.) University of Peshawar (B.A. and M.A.) |
| Occupation | Spokesperson for President |
| Profession | Civil engineer and politician |
| Cabinet | Cabinet of Pakistan |
| Religion | Islam - Muslim |
| Fields | Civil Engineering |
| Institution | Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) |
Farhatullah Babar (Urdu: فرحت اللہ بابر ) is a Pakistani politician and Parliamentarian from Pakistan People's Party (PPP) to the Parliament. He is a senior member of the Pakistan Peoples Party and served in the Pakistani Senate from 2003 to 2006. He was an outspoken critic of the former Pakistani administration headed by President General Pervez Musharraf's regime. Currently, he is the spokesperson of the office of President of Pakistan.
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[edit] Education
Born in Peshawar, Babar belongs to an ethnic pashtun family. After he did his high-school, Babar was admitted in Peshawar University in 1959. At there, he studied for his double major where he received his B.A. in Fine Arts and B.A. with Honors in Pushto language from the Peshawar University in 1963. He was then admitted at the University of Engineering and Technology of Peshawar where he graduated and received his B.Eng. in Civil Engineering in 1965, and followed by his Sc.M in Civil engineering, in 1967, from University of Engineering and Technology of Peshawar. In 1981, he did a one year long course in French Language and received a diploma in 1981.
He has been a president and chairperson of PR Management, PIM Karachi, Pakistan Engineering Council (1983), Certificate, Pakistan Computer Bureau Islamabad (1994), Journalism and Mass Communication, Information Academy Islamabad.
[edit] Baber as engineer
Babar is one of the few Pakistani Parliamentarians who maintained a close relationships with Pakistan's atomic scientists. Babur was employed in Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission in 1970 and from 1970 till late 1980s, baber had worked as a civil engineer at the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission and was known to be very close to prominent atomic scientist Munir Ahmad Khan. He played an important role in Pakistan's nuclear program and help designing the constructions of experimental nuclear power plants in Pakistan. He also upgraded the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant facility along with fellow nuclear scientists.
He also played an important political role in Pakistan's nuclear safety policy. He was a close friend of former PAEC Chairman Munir Ahmad Khan. He wrote numerous articles about History of Nuclear Pakistan, in which he paid a heavy tribute to Munir Ahmad Khan and dr. Ishfaq Ahmad. On late October 2001, when the nuclear scandal came in news which resulted in arrests of Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood and dr. Chaudhry Abdul Majeed. His efforts were involved not to interrogated the scientists too harshly where he met repeatedly with Army officials to make a way to release the detained scientists. On August 2007, Babar paid a visit to a families of dr. Chadhry Abdul Majeed and Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood in which he said:
"Dr. Majeed and Eng. Mahmood has been wronged by the government and a signal has been sent to the Pakistani scientist that they would have to defend themselves in any eventuality which becomes too hot to handle for the government."
[edit] Petitions for disqualification
On September 17, 2007, Benazir Bhutto accused Pervez Musharraf's allies of pushing Pakistan to crisis by refusal to restore democracy and share power. A nine-member panel of Supreme Court judges deliberated on 6 petitions (including Jamaat-e-Islami's, Pakistan's largest Islamic group) for disqualification of Musharraf as presidential candidate. Bhutto stated that her party may join other opposition groups, including Nawaz Sharif's. Attorney General of Pakistan Malik Mohammed Qayyum stated that, pendente lite, the Election Commission was "reluctant" to announce the schedule for the presidential vote. Bhutto's party's Farhatullah Babar stated that the Constitution could bar Musharraf from being elected again because he holds the army chief's post. "As Gen. Musharraf is disqualified from contesting for President, he has prevailed upon the Election Commission to arbitrarily and illegally tamper with the Constitution of Pakistan."[1]
