Khawaja Asif

Khawaja Asif
خواجہ آصف
Asif in 2015
Minister of Defence
Assumed office
19 April 2022
President
Prime MinisterShehbaz Sharif
Preceded byPervez Khattak
Succeeded byAnwar Ali Hyder (caretaker)
In office
27 November 2013 – 28 July 2017
PresidentMamnoon Hussain
Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif
Preceded byNaveed Qamar
Succeeded byKhurram Dastgir
33rd Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office
4 August 2017 – 26 April 2018
PresidentMamnoon Hussain
Prime MinisterShahid Khaqan Abbasi
Preceded bySartaj Aziz(as Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs)
Succeeded byKhurram Dastgir Khan
Minister of Water and Power
In office
7 June 2013 – 28 July 2017
PresidentMamnoon Hussain
Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif
DeputyAbid Sher Ali
Preceded byAhmad Mukhtar
Succeeded bySyed Javed Ali Shah (as Minister of Water Resources)
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi (as Minister of Energy)
Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources
In office
31 March 2008 – 13 May 2008
PresidentPervez Musharraf
Prime MinisterYusuf Raza Gillani
Succeeded byAsim Hussain
Minister of Sports
In office
31 March 2008 – 13 May 2008
PresidentPervez Musharraf
Prime MinisterYusuf Raza Gillani
Senior Vice-President of PML(N)
Assumed office
4 May 2019
DeputyAbid Sher Ali
Preceded byPosition Established
Member of National Assembly of Pakistan
Assumed office
29 February 2024
ConstituencyNA-71 Sialkot-II
Majority18,454 (7.52%)
In office
13 August 2018 – 10 August 2023
ConstituencyNA-73 Sialkot-II
Majority1,406 (0.57%)
In office
18 November 2002 – 26 April 2018
ConstituencyNA-110 Sialkot-I
Majority3,786 (3.72%)
In office
15 October 1993 – 12 October 1999
Preceded byMian Muhammad Shafi
ConstituencyNA-85 Sialkot-I
Personal details
Born (1949-08-09) 9 August 1949
PartyPML(N) (1993–present)
SpouseMusarrat Asif Khawaja
RelationsFarooq Naek (cousin)
Parent
Alma materUniversity of the Punjab
Awards Nishan-e-Imtiaz
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Khawaja Muhammad Asif (born 9 August 1949) is a Pakistani politician who has served as the Defence Minister of Pakistan since 2022, having previously served in the post from 2013 to 2017. He has been a Member of the National Assembly (MNA) from Sialkot since 1993, elected for the seventh time in 2024. He is among the senior-most members of the Pakistan Muslim League (N) from Punjab.

He also has an additional portfolio of Minister of Aviation since 11 March 2024, and was the Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Abbasi cabinet from August 2017 to April 2018 and simultaneously served as the Minister for Defence and Minister for Water and Power under Nawaz Sharif's third term from 2013 to 2017. Asif began his political career after getting elected to the Senate of Pakistan during the Nawaz Sharif's first term in 1991. Since 1997, he had served as a member of the federal cabinet, in various positions. From 1997 to 1999, he was as the chairman of the Privatization Commission of Pakistan during the second government of Nawaz Sharif. He briefly held the cabinet portfolios of the Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources in the Gillani ministry in 2008, with an additional charge as Minister for Sports.