President PTI & Former Chief Minister Punjab
Chaudhary Parvez Elahi is the son of Chaudhry Manzoor Elahi and was born on November 1, 1945. He graduated in 1967 and obtained Diploma in Industrial Management from London. He hails from a distinguished political and industrial family. An industrialist and a veteran politician, who served as Chairman, District Council Gujrat during 1983-84; he has successively been serving as Member of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab and National Assembly of Pakistan since 1985. He joined the PTI in early 2023 and was appointed as President. After he joined the party he was unlwafully jailed in June 2023 on false charges and was held in extremely poor humanitarian conditions without proper medical care in a small cell before he was granted bail and released in May 2024.
He functioned as Minister for Local Government & Rural Development for three terms during 1985-88, 1988-90, 1990-93 and served as Acting Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly during 1993-96. He has had the honour to serve as Speaker of the Punjab Assembly during 1997-99. Having been elected in General Elections 2002, he was elected as Chief Minister of Punjab and functioned as such till 2007. He served as Member of the National Assembly for two consecutive terms during 2008-13 and 2013-18. In 2008, he served as Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly of Pakistan.
He functioned as Federal Minister for Defence Production and Industries during 2011-13. In 2012, he was appointed as the first ever Deputy Prime Minister of Pakistan. In General Elections 2018 he won two National Assembly seats and one Provincial Assembly seat, he retained his provincial seat and was re-elected as Speaker of the Punjab Assembly for the second time (2018-22). He was politically affiliated with the PML-N until 1999, when he joined the PML-Q, a party which he would stay in until 2023.
In late February 2023, Parvez Elahi announced joining Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Party along with 10 of his party’s former MPAs. On 7 March 2023, Parvez Elahi was appointed as President of PTI. He also served as the Chief Minister Punjab under the PTI government in Punjab from July 2022 to January 2023, in which he dissolved the Punjab Assembly as per the request of Imran Khan.
Parvez Elahi remains a strong face in the fight against injustice, and has stood alongside Imran Khan in desperate times. He was arrested in June 2023 and was subject to poor conditions. He fractured his spine in an injury while being held in jail. He was denied proper medical assistance in an attempt to pressure him to leave Imran Khan. Despite this, Parvez Elahi stands loyal to Imran Khan. After being held in such poor conditions, he was released on bail in May 2024 and remains President PTI.
