Javed Hashmi (; born 1 January 1948
After serving as a cabinet minister in the Sharif's administrations in the 1990s, Hashmi aligned himself on the realist school of international relations and was a proponent of supporting the civilian control on the federal government and the military. Initially supporting the impeachment movement against Pervez Musharraf with Nawaz Sharif, he drifted apart from the PML(N) to join the Imran Khan's PTI in 2011 but was ousted after disagreeing with the demonstration against the elected government, which he viewed that it had the support from the military to destabilized the elected Sharif administration in 2014.
Without political support, Hashmi lost the byelection and went on to join the PML(N) after reconciling his differences on the policy matters with the Nawaz Sharif in 2018. Besides his political career, Hashmi is a prolific writer on geopolitics and geostrategy, and is an author of geopolitical book, "Yes! I'm a Rebel, where he successfully calculated the danger of the foreign supported homegrown terrorism in Pakistan and precisely placing a prediction on Musharraf government's weakening the state of Pakistan. Other sources noted his birthplace in Lahore with same date and year of birth; though, he confirmed his date of birth and year as well as birthplace on 1 January 1948 in Multan. His family was known for their participation in the Pakistan Movement and was part of the Muslim League since its inception in 1906.
After his matriculation in 1968, Hashmi went to attend the Emerson College in Multan but made a transfer to the Punjab University in Lahore in 1970, where he became involved in student politics on the platform of the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba, the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami– an Islamist party. In 1969, he secured his graduation from the Punjab University with BSc. in Political Science.
Political career
Early career
In 1978, Hashmi was taken in the Zia administration as the Minister of State for Youth and Student Affairs, and was the youngest minister at the age of 29. However, he later expressed his uncomfortableness with working with the uniform officials and soon departed from the administration where he began practicing law at the Lahore High Court while filling the role of agriculturist at his family farms. In 1998, he visited Switzerland to attend the environmental and climate change conference but immediately return to Pakistan after learning of India's nuclear tests in Rajasthan.
In 2001, Hashmi led the strong conservative demonstration against President Pervez Musharraf's geostrategy on the war on terror that led to the U.S. invasion in Afghanistan. During this time, Shuja'at Hussain, the head of the PML(Q) supporting President Musharraf, made an unsuccessful attempt to recruiting him and Nisar Ali Khan into his faction to provide political advocacy for President Musharraf in 2002. In 2002, the PML(N) announced to participate in the nationwide general elections with Hashmi earning the combined nomination from the Opposition alliance in the Parliament for the Prime Ministership against Mir Zafarullah Jamali of the PML(Q); Hashmi later conceded his defeat in the elections due to counting of the electoral college. Hearings of his trials were held in the Adiala Prison and the session court at the Lahore High Court, which raised doubts among human rights groups about its fairness.
The verdict was widely criticized in Pakistan and was considered as a wilful miscarriage of justice by the Musharraf administration, and the ARD and the MMA termed this verdict to be politically motivated by the ruling junta with malicious intent, declaring him to be a political prisoner.
On 3 August 2007, a three-member bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan under Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry granted him bail after serving approximately three and a half years in prison. He spoke against of the strategic partnership act offered by the United States, and released a very strong reaction on Inter Services Public Relations, which he termed the Kerry-Lugar Bill, an interference on part of Americans in country's intelligence community. Over the issue of the Memogate scandal that implicated the former President Asif Ali Zardari and Parliament's failure for its investigation, Hashmi reportedly Hashmi submitted his resignation from Parliament, claiming that "this parliament is a dummy and not passing real legislation" on 7 May 2011.
On 24 December 2011, Hashmi reportedly cut his ties from the PML(N) and joined the PTI and addressed a rally in support of Imran Khan in Karachi on 25 December 2011. Though, he also warned Imran Khan of his dissenting approach if Imran Khan did not deliver his party's manifesto as promised to the voters. During the general elections held in 2013, Hashmi successfully defended the NA-48 in Islamabad, and NA-149 in Multan on PTI's platform but later relinquished the NA-48 in favor of PTI's worker. He stood against Nawaz Sharif's candidacy in the National Assembly when the vote of confidence measure took place, and reportedly spoke in favor of Nawaz Sharif where he reportedly quoted in the televised conference: "Political differences aside, Nawaz is my political leader and will remain so."
On 14 August 2014, Hashmi voiced serious and irreconcilable concerns when Imran Khan decided to lead a massive protests against alleged rigging in the general elections when the decision towards the Dharna at the Constitution Avenue in Islamabad; though he decided to address the march on Khan's request. On 31 August 2014, Hashmi left the party in distraught and in anger when the Imran Khan's march attacked the media reporters and was violently moved towards the Prime Minister's Secretariat under Khan's orders. On 1 September 2014, Hashmi accused the Pakistan Army of destabilizing the civilian writ of Sharif administration and wasn't well received by Imran Khan who later issued the show cause notice which results in Hashmi leaving the PTI. The PTI later refused to accept his resignation instead Imran Khan ousted him from the party on 26 September 2014.
Rejoining PML(N) and political positions: 2018–present
On 12 May 2018, Hashmi, along with his daughter, Mamoona Hashmi met with Nawaz Sharif and announced to rejoin the PML(N) after reconciling the party policy differences with Nawaz Sharif. At this meeting, Hashmi spoke very high of Nawaz Sharif's services done to the country, and reportedly praised his elder daughter, Momoona, and Sharif's daughter, Mary'am, of supporting the political program of the party. On 20 July 2010, Hashmi was hospitalised at Nishtar Hospital after he suffered Brain Hemorrhage, and his body also suffered stroke due to internal bleeding. He was later admitted at the General Hospital for minor fever. Though, his CT angiography reports came out normal.