Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar

Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar (born 7 July 1967) is a Pakistani politician from Rahim Yar Khan who has held four different federal cabinet portfolios. He hails from Mian Wali Qureshian, a village in Rahim Yar Khan District, and belongs to a prominent political family of the region.

Bakhtiar graduated from the University of the Punjab in 1990 and later qualified as a barrister, earning an LLB (Hons) from the London School of Economics in 1994 and a Bar-at-Law degree from Lincoln’s Inn in 1995. He was elected to the Provincial Assembly of Punjab in 1997 on a PML-N ticket and served as an advisor to Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif. He was elected to the National Assembly for the first time in 2002 on a PML-Q ticket and served as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs from 2004 to 2007.

After being re-elected as an independent in 2013 and later joining PML-N, Bakhtiar co-led a group of lawmakers who left the party in 2018 to form the “Junoobi Punjab Suba Mahaaz,” advocating for a separate South Punjab province. The group merged into the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ahead of the 2018 general election, in which Bakhtiar was elected from NA-177 Rahim Yar Khan-III.

During the PTI government of Prime Minister Imran Khan, Bakhtiar served successively as Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reform (2018-2019), National Food Security and Research (2019-2020), Economic Affairs (2020-2021) and Industries and Production (2021-2022). In May 2023 he stepped down from his positions within PTI, citing the party’s response to the unrest following 9 May 2023.