PROFILE

Mr. Zahid Hamid has taken the oath of the office of Federal Minister on April 25, 2006 and has been assigned the portfolio of Ministry of Privatisation & Investment. He was elected as Member National Assembly of Pakistan from NA-114 Sialkot-V as a candidate of Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam). He became Minister of State for Defense in September 2004.

He is a lawyer by profession, and an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Mr. Zahid Hamid obtained his BA Honours (Economics Tripos) and Masters degrees from Cambridge University, U.K and LL.B degree from University of the Punjab, Lahore. He was originally a member of the Civil Service of Pakistan and later a successful industrialist. Apart from the Civil Services Academy, Lahore, he has also attended training courses at the Planning Commission, Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration and the International Development Law Institute, Rome.

As a lawyer, Mr. Zahid Hamid has special interest in constitutional, commercial and environmental law. He is a renowned expert in the field of environmental law in particular, and has done consultancy work for the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. He is the principal draftsperson of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act 1997.

He is a member of the National Assembly’s Standing Committees on Law, Justice and Human Rights and Parliamentary Affairs and Special Committee of Parliament on Kashmir and Standing Committee on Privatisation. He is also member of the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law Bonn and the Pakistan Banking Laws Review Commission. As Minister for Privatisation and Investment he is Vice-Chairman of the Board of Governors of the National School of Public Policy.

He was born on October 24, 1947 in Lahore, Punjab. He is married with two sons and a daughter.