Hina Rabbani Khar

Hina Rabbani Khar

Hina Rabbani Khar is a Pakistani politician who served as the 21st Foreign Minister of Pakistan from February 2011 until March 2013. Appointed at the age of 33, she was the youngest person and the first woman to have held the position. Khar is a member of an influential feudal family in Muzaffargarh. She studied business at LUMS and U Mass-Amherst before entering politics as a member of the national assembly in 2002, representing the PML-Q and becoming a junior minister responsible for economic policy under the Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. In 2009, after switching parties and winning re-election with the Pakistan Peoples Party, she became the Minister of State for Finance and Economic Affairs and the same year became the first woman to present the national budget. She was appointed by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani as the Foreign Minister of Pakistan in July 2011, and served until shortly before the 2013 election, when she retired from active politics. She has continued to push for stronger ties with India. She remains a member of the Pakistan Peoples Party, and is a public speaker on foreign policy. As of 2019, she is a Member of the National Assembly of Pakistan on a reserved seat for women.