Salmaan Taseer
Salmaan Taseer (Urdu: سلمان تاثیر; (1944-05-31)31 May 1944 – 4 January 2011) was a Pakistani businessman and politician who served as the 26th governor of the province of Punjab from 2008 until his assassination in early 2011.
A member of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), he had served also as a minister in the caretaker cabinet of Prime Minister Muhammad Mian Soomro under Pervez Musharraf. Taseer was also the chairman and CEO of the First Capital and Worldcall Group.
He was appointed to the post of governor on 15 May 2008, in place of outgoing governor Lt Gen (R) Khalid Maqbool, by then-President Musharraf at the request of the PPP establishment.
On 4 January 2011, Taseer was assassinated in Islamabad by his own security guard Mumtaz Qadri, who disagreed with Taseer's opposition to Pakistan's blasphemy law.
Early life
Salmaan Taseer is of Anglo-Indian ancestry, being of Kashmiri descent on his father's side and of English descent on his mother's side.
He was born on 31 May 1944, in Simla, East Punjab, British India, of a family hailing from Amritsar. His father was Muhammad Din Taseer, known as M. D. Taseer, who was born in Ajnala Amritsar, and was a professor at Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College, Amritsar, having obtained his PhD in the United Kingdom; and Taseer's mother was Bilqis (Christobel) née George.