| Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed Aqeel Khan | |
| Office: | 38th Minister of Interior |
| President: | Arif Alvi |
| Primeminister: | Imran Khan |
| Term Start: | 11 December 2020 |
| Term End: | 10 April 2022 |
| Predecessor: | Ijaz Shah |
| Successor: | Rana Sanaullah Khan |
| Term Start1: | 18 August 2018 |
| Term End1: | 11 December 2020 |
| President1: | Mamnoon Hussain Arif Alvi |
| Primeminister1: | Imran Khan |
| Predecessor1: | Roshan Khursheed Bharucha (caretaker) |
| Successor1: | Azam Khan Swati |
| Term Start2: | 18 August 2018 |
| Term End2: | 11 December 2020 |
| Office3: | Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting |
| Term Start3: | 2 September 2004 |
| Term End3: | 25 April 2006 |
| President3: | Pervez Musharraf |
| Primeminister3: | Shaukat Aziz |
| Successor3: | Muhammad Ali Durrani[1] |
| Term Start4: | 30 June 2004 |
| Term End4: | 25 August 2004 |
| President4: | Pervez Musharraf |
| Primeminister4: | Shujat Hussain |
| Term Start5: | 21 November 2002 |
| Term End5: | 26 June 2004 |
| President5: | Pervez Musharraf |
| Primeminister5: | Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali |
| Office6: | Federal Minister for Labour and Manpower |
| Term Start6: | 11 July 1997 |
| Term End6: | 12 October 1999 |
| Primeminister6: | Nawaz Sharif |
| President6: | Farooq Leghari Wasim Sajjad Muhammad Rafiq Tarar |
| Office7: | Federal Minister for Overseas Pakistanis |
| Term Start7: | 11 July 1997 |
| Term End7: | 12 October 1999 |
| Primeminister7: | Nawaz Sharif |
| President7: | Farooq Leghari Wasim Sajjad Muhammad Rafiq Tarar |
| Office8: | Federal Minister for Youth Affairs |
| Term Start8: | 11 July 1997 |
| Term End8: | 6 August 1998 |
| Primeminister8: | Nawaz Sharif |
| President8: | Farooq Leghari Wasim Sajjad Muhammad Rafiq Tarar |
| Office9: | Federal Minister for Tourism |
| Term Start9: | 11 July 1997 |
| Term End9: | 6 August 1998 |
| Primeminister9: | Nawaz Sharif |
| President9: | Farooq Leghari Wasim Sajjad Muhammad Rafiq Tarar |
| Office10: | President Awami Muslim League |
| Term Start10: | June 2008 |
| Office11: | Federal Minister for Culture |
| Term Start11: | 11 July 1997 |
| Term End11: | 6 August 1998 |
| Primeminister11: | Nawaz Sharif |
| President11: | Farooq Leghari Wasim Sajjad Muhammad Rafiq Tarar |
| Term Start12: | 10 September 1991 |
| Term End12: | 18 July 1993 |
| Primeminister12: | Nawaz Sharif |
| President12: | Ghulam Ishaq Khan |
| Office13: | Federal Minister for Industries |
| Term Start13: | 10 September 1991 |
| Term End13: | 18 July 1993 |
| Primeminister13: | Nawaz Sharif |
| President13: | Ghulam Ishaq Khan |
| Office14: | Member of the National Assembly of Pakistan |
| Term Start14: | 13 August 2018 |
| Term End14: | 17 January 2023 |
| Constituency14: | NA-62 (Rawalpindi-VI) |
| Term Start15: | 1 June 2013 |
| Term End15: | 31 May 2018 |
| Constituency15: | NA-55 (Rawalpindi-VI) |
| Term Start16: | 16 November 2002 |
| Term End16: | 15 November 2007 |
| Constituency16: | NA-55 (Rawalpindi-VI) |
| Birth Place: | Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan |
| Relatives: | Sheikh Rashid Shafique (nephew)[2] |
| Nationality: | Pakistani |
| Alma Mater: | Government Gordon College University of Punjab |
| Office1: | Minister of Railways |
| Termend2: | 15 November 2007 |
| Termstart2: | 25 April 2006 |
| President2: | Pervez Musharraf |
| Primeminister2: | Shaukat Aziz |
| Successor2: | Ghulam Ahmed Bilour |
| Predecessor2: | Saleemur Rahman Akhoond |
| Birth Date: | 6 November 1950 |
| Profession: | Politician |
| Constituency17: | NA-38 Rawalpindi-III |
| Term Start17: | 21 March 1985 |
| Term End17: | 12 October 1999 |
Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad (Urdu: {{Nastaliq| شیخ رشید احمد; born 6 November 1950) is a Pakistani politician who served as the 38th Interior Minister of Pakistan in Imran Khan government from 2020 to 2022. He is the founder and leader of Awami Muslim League, and also maintains close relations with the political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.
Ahmad was born on November 6, 1950, into a Kashmiri family[3] in Babra Bazaar in Rawalpindi, Punjab.[4] [5] [6]
He received his early education from Polytechnic College and graduated from Government Gordon College. Ahmad was a leader of the student union at Gordon College.[7] He completed his Bachelor of Laws at the University of Punjab in 1973. He later earned his Master's in political science from the same university in 1982.[8]
Ahmad began his political career during his student years and was actively involved against the military regime of Ayub Khan.
He was elected to the National Assembly eight times. In the 1985 Pakistani general election, which was held on non-party basis, he was elected as a member of the National Assembly for the first time from Rawalpindi. Rasheed was re-elected to the National Assembly for the second time in the 1988 Pakistani general election, this time campaigning on the Islamic Democratic Alliance ticket. In 1990, he campaigned again on the IDA ticket and was re-elected a third time to the National Assembly, later becoming the Minister of Sports. Under his tenure, Pakistan won the Cricket World Cup in 1992 under the captaincy of Imran Khan. In the 1993 election, he was re-elected, this time on the Pakistan Muslim League (N) ticket. Rasheed was re-elected in 1997, and in 2002 the PML-N refused to allot a ticket to him. He decided to run as an independent,[9] and secured a sixth re-election.
Later, Rasheed joined PML-Q,[10] [11] and because he was a close friend of then-president Pervez Musharraf, he was appointed as Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting in the Zafarullah Khan Jamali cabinet in November 2002.[12] As minister for information, Ahmed, on public places, had assumed the role of the spokesman of Musharraf[13] and an advocate of the government of Jamali.[14]
In May 2006, he was made Federal Minister for Railways.[15] [16] In the 2008 Pakistani general election, Ahmad ran for the seat of National Assembly on a Pakistan Muslim League-Q ticket, losing the election for the first time[17] from both the Rawalpindi constituencies he contested, NA-55 and NA-56, to PML-N.[18] He won the election from NA-56 for multiple times.[19] There were rumours that Ahmad had fled to Spain following the defeat.[20] However, these allegations were later found to be false. In an interview, Ahmad said his defeat in the election was due to a raid on Lal Masjid and that "he had promised to quit politics after the 2008 elections but his defeat had changed his mind."
He later left PML-Q where he was a senior vice-president and created his own political party Awami Muslim League (AML) and appointed himself as president of the party.[21]
In February 2010, when Ahmad was in the run for the National Assembly seat during a by-election in NA-55, Rawalpindi, he lost the election to Malik Shakeel Awan by an enormous margin. Ahmad earlier supported Musharraf's military operation against the militants in Federally Administered Tribal Areas and the Siege of Lal Masjid[22] and has been on the hit list of militants. He was left devastated by this embarrassing loss and was spotted smoking his cigar alone at times.[23]
In the 2013 Pakistani general election, Ahmad made an electoral alliance with Imran Khan to support each other in their respective constituencies in the election.[24] It was reported that Ahmad has requested for a merger between his party and Imran Khan's PTI,[25] however, the PTI decided not to go for an alliance with any political party.[26] He was re-elected as a member of the National Assembly for the seventh time from Rawalpindi.[27] In public circles, he is known for making witty remarks and political predictions. He is also known for switching political allegiances from one party to another. In July 2017, he was chosen by the PTI as a candidate for the post of prime minister, following the resignation of outgoing Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after the Panama Papers case decision.[28] He secured 33 votes in the 342-seat parliament and was unsuccessful.[29] He was re-elected to the National Assembly as a candidate of AML from NA-62 (Rawalpindi-VI) constituency in the 2018 Pakistani general election.[30]
On 18 August 2018, Imran Khan formally announced his federal cabinet structure, and Ahmad was named as Minister for Railways.[31] On 20 August 2018, he was sworn in as Federal Minister for Railways in the cabinet of Prime Minister Imran Khan.[32] In 2019, as the railway minister, Rasheed severed rail transport links between India and Pakistan due to the revocation of special status for Kashmir.[33]
In December 2020, in a cabinet reshuffle, he was given the portfolio of the minister for the interior.[34]
On 10 April 2022, Ahmad was removed from his ministry after former Prime Minister Imran Khan was ousted after losing a no-confidence vote.
In 2004, during his tenure as Minister for Information, Sheikh Rashid Ahmad was replaced with Shaukat Aziz as minister-in-waiting who would receive then visiting Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ji after the Indian foreign ministry's objection to the nomination of Ahmad as the minister-in-waiting.[35]
In 2005, India Today reported that Yasin Malik claimed that Ahmad had run a jihadi camp at Fateh Jung in Punjab, where around 3,500 jihadis were trained. Ahmad denied running such a camp.[36] Later it was reported that Yasin Malik retracted his statements and denied he had ever said that Ahmad had run such a camp.[37] [38]
In 2005, during Ahmad's tenure as Minister for Information, he applied for a permit to travel to Srinagar, in his personal capacity to visit the graves of his grandparents and meet his relatives in Jammu & Kashmir.[39] However India denied Ahmed's request to travel to Srinagar.
In 2012, Ahmad was detained at Houston airport over suspected links with Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, an alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks. He was released after five hours of questioning after official protest by the Pakistani Ambassador to the United States.[40] [41]
In 2014, Ahmad was off-loaded from a Toronto-bound PIA flight due to non-issuance of clearance by the Canadian authorities.[42]
In 2018, Ahmad was accused by Malik Shakeel Awan of concealing and failing to mention in his electoral papers possession of 100 kanal (12.5 acres) of land. Ahmad won the legal case regarding the allegation, and later confessed that he had forgotten to mention the land in his electoral papers. The decision was considered extremely biased in favour Ahmad and had remained disputed.[43]