Raja Zafar-ul-Haq

Raja Muhammad Zafar-ul-Haq (; born 18 November 1935), is a Pakistani politician and lawyer, who served as senator from the Punjab, being elected on 12 March 2009. He had been the leader of the opposition in Senate from 2018 to 2021. He is serving as the Chairman of the Pakistan Muslim League (N), a centre-right party, since 20 February 2000. A retired diplomat and lawyer by profession, Zafar-ul-Haq served as the Minister of Religious Affairs under Zia-ul-Haq from 1981 to 1985 and occupied the post again during the second administration of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from 1997 until being removed by Musharraf's coup d'état in 1999. Haq is known for his views for support of the religious conservatism but strongly advocated for religious temperance and humility. In addition, he is also known for leading the constitutional initiatives to form the inquiry commission on the Kargil War, against Pervez Musharraf, whom he saw as a "traitor", and voiced support for civilian control of the military. Zafar-ul-Haq was born in a small village, Matore, located in Kahuta Tehsil, Punjab in India into a Punjabi Muslim family of the Rajput-Janjua clan on 18 November 1935. His father, Raja Fazal Dad Khan, was a Deputy Superintendent of Police in the Punjab Police Department. Zafar-ul-Haq attended various high schools in Punjab, and matriculated from Sialkot in 1952. He went to attend the Government College University in Lahore, where he secured his graduate with B.A. in Philosophy in 1956. He went on to attend the law school of the Punjab University to read law and political science, graduating with a LLB degree in civil law and a MSc in political science in 1958. He started practicing law with the firm S.M. Zafar associates in Lahore, but later moved to Rawalpindi where he took cases and practiced law until 1981. In 1977, he was elected as the president of the Rawalpindi Bar Association and was serving as vice president of the Punjab Bar Council in 1981. Zafar-ul-Haq moved to Islamabad where he became member of the Supreme Court Bar Association and became the supreme court advocate from 1985 until 1987.