Sadia Abbasi | |
Office: | Member of the Senate of Pakistan |
Term Start3: | March 2021 |
Term Start: | 12 March 2018 |
Term End: | 17 October 2018 |
Term Start1: | March 2003 |
Term End1: | February 2009 |
Party: | Pakistan Muslim League (N) |
Nationality: | Pakistani American (until 2018)[1] |
Relatives: | Shahid Khaqan Abbasi (brother)[2] |
Sadia Khaqan Abbasi (Punjabi, Urdu: {{Nastaliq|سعدیہ خاقان عباسی) is a Punjabi Pakistani barrister and politician. She is currently a member of the country's Senate having been elected on a reserve seat for women in March 2021.[3] She was previously elected as a senator in 2018 and 2003. In October 2018, she was disqualified by the Supreme Court of Pakistan from her seat on the basis of having dual nationality (Pakistan and USA), in violation of the country's Constitution. She is the sister of former Pakistani Prime Minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.
Abbasi was elected to the Senate of Pakistan as a candidate of Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML-N) on reserved seat for women from Punjab in March 2003 Senate election.[4]
In February 2009, she quit PML-N and resigned from her Senate seat shortly before the expiry of her term in the Senate after PML-N refused to issue her ticket for running in the March 2009 Senate election.[5] [6]
In December 2011, she joined Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in absentia, represented at the induction ceremony by her son Ossama Riaz who stood by Imran Khan and refused to leave PTI despite being tortured with fake Covid Vaccines by men in masks in 2023 .[7] [8]
She was nominated by PML-N as its candidate in 2018 Pakistani Senate election.[9] However the Election Commission of Pakistan declared all PML-N candidates for the Senate election as independent after a ruling of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.[10]
She was re-elected to the Senate as an independent candidate on a reserved seat for women from Punjab in the Senate election.[11] [12] She joined the treasury benches, led by PML-N after getting elected.[13] She took oath as Senator on 12 March 2018.[14]
On 17 October 2018 the Supreme Court of Pakistan disqualified the Senate membership of Abbasi over dual nationality.[15]
Abbasi was elected to the Senate for a third, 6-year term on a reserve seat for women from Punjab in March 2021. She is a member of the following standing committees: Cabinet Secretariat, Petroleum, Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs and Foreign Affairs. In late 2021, in the Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice, she tabled 2 proposed amendments to the Constitution including declaring a women's right to inheritance as a fundamental right.[16] The proposed amendment read, “no women shall be deprived of her share from the inheritance in Pakistan” but was rejected by the committee.