Zahid Hamid

In 1970, Hamid passed the CSS exam to join the Central Superior Services (CSS) where he worked with the provincial government of Punjab but resigned in 1978 from the CSS to start career in politics. He set up and managed two industrial units in the food sector from 1978 to 1988.^[1]

Hamid started his career as professional lawyer and eventually becoming a senior advocate at the Supreme Court of Pakistan.^[1]

In the 1990s, he established the Environmental Protection Agency authorised by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1997 and appointed the first Director-General of the Environmental Protection Agency until being dismissed by General Pervez Musharraf after staging a self-coup in 1999.^[1]

He ran for the seat of National Assembly in 1997 election as PPP candidate but was unsuccessful.^[5]

Following the military takeover, Hamid defected to the PML(N)'s splinter group led by Shuja'at Hussain, and successfully participated in NA-114 constituency during the general elections held nationwide in 2002.^[5][7] From 2004 to 2007, he tenured as Minister of State for Defence, Investment and Privatization; in 2008, he had been elevated as the Minister for Law.^{[1][3][8][9][10][5]}

In 2008, Hamid joined the PML(N).^[7][11] Between 2008 and 2013, he was active member of the PML-N in National Assembly when the party was in opposition.^[5]

In 2013, Hamid participated in the 2013 Pakistani general elections and elected as member of National Assembly from his constituency NA-114. He was appointed Law Minister in the Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights, but later he was reassigned to Science ministry.^[12] Due to the treason trial of Pervez Musharraf. Hamid abruptly resigned from the Science ministry after the special court inducted him on a Musharraf treason trial.^{[7][9][12][13][14][15]} On hearing the court's decision, Hamid tendered his resignation to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.^[7][16][17]

In November 2015 he was made Minister of Climate Change^[18] and in 2016, Hamid was given the additional portfolio of the Minister of Law and Justice.^[13] He had ceased to hold ministerial office in July 2017 when the federal cabinet was disbanded following the disqualification of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in Panama Papers case decision.^[19] Following the election of Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as Prime Minister of Pakistan in August 2017, he was inducted into the federal cabinet of Abbasi.^[20][21] He was appointed federal Minister of Law and Justice.^[22][23] He stepped down from the ministerial office of Minister for Law and Justice in November 2017, following the 2017 Tehreek-e-Labaik protest.^[24][25]