Sardar Saleem Haider

Born on June 1, 1969 at Dhurnal, a small town in Fatehjang tehsil of Attock district 75 kilometres southwest of Islamabad, Sardar Salim Haider Khan studied at Talagang up to Middle Standard. He got BSc degree in mathematics and statistics from the Satellite Town Degree College, Rawalpindi. During his early life, he used to play sports like cricket, football and hockey. His father Sardar Jang Bahadar Khan was a landlord, Sardar Salim Haider idealised politics as his career since his childhood. He was twice elected secretary general and thrice president of the Muslim Students Federation (MSF) in the college days. Being inspired by the leadership of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Sardar Salim Haider is affiliated with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) since joining the national politics, was elected to the Attock District Council in 1997. He contested election for a Punjab Assembly seat from PP-18 constituency in 2002 on the PPP ticket but finished as runner-up with 38,000 votes. A close relative of PML-N stalwart Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Sardar Salim Haider contested election for a National Assembly seat from NA-59 Attock-III constituency on ticket of the PPP in general elections 2008 and emerged victorious defeating Asif Ali Malik of the PML-N and Chaudhry Waseem Gulzar of PML-Q. Salim Haider believes that if interference of the military in the political affairs of the country continued, the very integrity of the country might be hurt within next 20 years. As part of recreation activities, Sardar Salim Haider likes hunting and watching sports like cricket, hockey, wrestling, boxing, etc. However, he spends much of his time in meeting people of the area and helping them in solution to their different problems. He likes reading books on poetry, literature and current affairs but could not read because of the paucity of time except scanning a couple of newspapers to keep himself abreast with the current affairs. Besides agriculture, currently he is also working as labour contractor with the companies operating Dhurnal and Khaur oilfields. Sardar Salim Haider Khan contested election for a National Assembly seat from NA-59 constituency on PPP ticket and emerged successful. After the PPP formed coalition government, he was inducted in the federal cabinet as minister of state for defence production.