Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri

Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri is a senior politician who served as the Foreign Minister from 2002-2007, and is currently a member of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

Born on 18 June 1941, Kasuri completed his high school in Lahore and St Patrick’s High School, Karachi, and later received BA with Honors in international relations from Punjab University in 1961.

In 1963, he moved to Paris to attend Sorbonne University where he studied French history, and transferred to University of Nice. He later studied law at Cambridge and was subsequently admitted as a barrister at the Gray’s Inn.

He started his political career with the Tehreek-e-Istiqlal led by Air Marshal Asghar Khan, which was then the main opposition party and rose to be its Secretary General.

After General Zia went back on his promise to hold general, Kasuri left the foreign office to join the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) in 1981 and was subsequently arrested.

In 1983, Kasur left the country and started his academic career in France. He briefly return in 1988 after the mysterious death of Zia-ul-Haq in a plane crash and joined the Foreign Service.

He participated in the 1993 general elections on a Pakistan Muslim League (PML) and successfully defended his constituency in Kasur in during the 1997 general elections.

He served as Chairman of the standing committee on Information and Media Development (PSCIMD) and was also a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Relations (PSCFR).

In 1999, after the military coup d’état by General Pervez Musharraf, he defected to the dissident group headed by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain in 2001 after confrontation with provisional PML chief Javed Hashmi.

He successfully contested in 2002 general elections from a NA-142 Kasur, and become the Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2002 and remained until 2007.

See Also: Khawaja Muhammad Asif – Born, Age, Political Party and Family

Khurshid Kasuri joined the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf led by Imran Khan in 2012 but unsuccessfully ran for National Assembly in 2013. He is the executive member of the board of directors of the Beaconhouse National University. He is also the author of ‘Neither a Hawk nor a Dove.’

Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri – Born, Age, Political party and Education