Safdar Ali Abbasi

Early life

Abbasi was born in the Larkana District of Sindh, Pakistan, on 26 December 1957, under a Muslim residence. His family has long been involved in local and national politics. Abbasi's mother, Dr. Ashraf Abbasi, was at one time the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan. Abbasi attended Aitchison College, Lahore, completing Cambridge and Intermediate studies before going on to pursue a medical degree at Dow Medical College, Karachi. He was interested and involved in local politics during his youth.

Political career

Safdar Abbasi contested the elections for Dow Medical College Students Union in 1981 from the platform of National Students Federation.

Abbasi became a worker of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), as he approved the Dogma of the late President and Premier of Pakistan Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. He was exiled during the martial law period. In 1986, he became a political assistant to Benazir Bhutto. When Benazir Bhutto became Prime Minister in 1988 he was appointed her Political Secretary, a position he retained through 1993.

In March 1994, Abbasi was elected for a six-year term to the Senate of Pakistan, where he served on the Senate Standing Committee on Commerce, Local Government and Rural Development and on the Senate Standing Committee for Health, Social Welfare and Special Education. In 2006, he was re-elected for an additional six-year term.

After Benazir Bhutto's assassination

Safdar Abbasi and his wife, Naheed Khan, faced many problems after Benazir Bhutto's assassination on December 27, 2007 in Liaquat Bagh. Both were considered very close to Benazir Bhutto and sidelined under the new leadership of Asif Ali Zardari, along with other close advisers of Benazir Bhutto.

Not only them, but it is a general impression since the tragedy, that many of the party workers who were close to Buttho have been ignored by Asif Ali Zardari, including well known party worker and leader of the lawyers movement in Pakistan Aitezaz Ahsan. Many new figures took the positions close to Zardari. Safdar and Naheed even though they have been held responsible for the death of Ms. Bhutto, of which both of them denied and asked Zardari to contradict. But there was no answer or contradiction from Zardari or his newly appointed aides.