Babar Awan

Zaheer-ud-din Babar Awan (Urdu: ظہيرالدين بابر اعوان‎; born 27 January 1958; SI), is a Pakistani statesman, lawyer, author, analyst, columnist, and leftist writer. He is currently serving as junior Pakistan Senator from Punjab Province, to which he was elected in 2012.

He regularly writes and publishes on left-wing philosophy, and served as Minister of Law and Justice in the cabinet of former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani. Due to a cabinet reshuffle, he lost his ministerial appointment in favor of Farooq Naik in 2011. He extensively writes political columns in a leading Urdu newspaper, the Daily Jang, in support of social democracy and social justice.

Biography

Early life and education

Babar Awan was born in a village located in secretive Kahuta, Pindi district, to a middle-class family on January 27, 1958. Awan's family was landowning family and his father belonged to the Awan caste tribe of the Potohar Plateau.

Awan did his matriculation in 1971, and attended the Punjab University to study humanities. In 1975, Awan graduated with a B.A. in Humanities, and later obtained Master of Science in Economics from the Punjab University in 1978.