Malik Ghulam Mustafa Khar[a] (born 2 August 1937) is a Pakistani politician andfeudal lord who served as the sixthchief minister of Punjab from 1973 to 1974, and as the 15th and 17thgovernor of Punjab from 1971 to 1973 and in 1975.
He was born on 2 August 1937 inSanawan inKot Addu,Punjab to a wealthy landowning family belonging to theKhar clan, of the largerKharal tribe. From his maternal side, he is a descendant of Khawaja Suleman Taunsvi ofTaunsa Sharif.[6]
He received his education fromAitchison College,Lahore.[7]
Ghulam Mustafa Khar won his first National Assembly election in 1962 at the age of 24. He remained on posts of Minister of Water and Power, Chief Minister and Governor. In 1967, Khar joinedZulfikar Ali Bhutto as one of the founding members of thePakistan Peoples Party as a close personal friend and political ally. He was appointedGovernor and Martial Law Administrator of Punjab, the most electorally powerful province in the country by the newly sworn in President Bhutto following the collapse ofYahya Khan's military government. When the 1973 constitution was adopted in August and Bhutto becamePrime Minister of Pakistan, Khar was given the portfolio ofChief Minister of Punjab Province.[8]
Thanks to complaints from within the PPP, Khar was replaced by the far more left-leaning and intellectualHanif Ramay. Khar was briefly reappointed Governor in March 1975 before being finally dismissed in July 1975. Bhutto's suspicions over Khar's ambitions as well as the deep divisions within the PPP in the Punjab led to his refusal to allow Khar to run for Ramay's seat in Lahore. Khar's attempts to run for the seat as an independent ended in failure. By 1976, former rivals within the PPP, Khar and Ramay were working together within thePir of Pagaro'sPakistan Muslim League (F). However, his relations with Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto briefly improved as he was appointed Special Assistant to the Prime Minister in 1977.[9]
In April 2017, he joined Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and he is considered to be on the left-wing of the PTI.[10] He quit the PTI in 2022 and went back to the PML-N.
Khar has been married eight times.[11] One of Khar's marriages was toTehmina Durrani, a Pakistani women's rights activist and author. Her first book,My Feudal Lord, released byVanguard Books of Lahore in June 1991, caused controversy in Pakistan's society by describing her abusive and traumatic marriage to Ghulam Mustafa Khar.[12]
His daughterAaminah Haq is a Pakistani model and actress noted as a Lux model and for her role in the television dramaMehndi.
Hina Rabbani Khar, the formerMinister of Foreign Affairs, is the daughter of his brotherGhulam Noor Rabbani.[13]
His son, Bilal Mustafa Khar was accused by his former wifeFakhra Younus of pouring acid over her face. Later, his son was acquitted of the charges. Four witnesses who testified to seeing his son enter Fakhra's home on the day of the attack complained of receiving death threats; they later retracted their statements due to the seriousness of the threats. In December 2003, judge dismissed the charges. Khar continued to protest his son's innocence, claiming the perpetrator was a pimp with whom his wife had been having an affair.[14]
“Pakistan’s role in Muslim world” in the bookRe-emerging Muslim World edited by Zahid Malik, published by Pakistan National Centre in 1974.
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Italics indicate acting chief ministers | ||
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| Preceded by | Governor of Punjab 23 Dec 1971 – 12 Nov 1973 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Governor of Punjab 14 Mar 1973 – 31 Jul 1973 | Succeeded by Mohammad Abbas Abbasi |
| Preceded by | Chief Minister of Punjab 12 Nov 1973 – 15 Mar 1974 | Succeeded by |
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