Sherry Rehman

Name: Sherry Rehman Picture of Senator Sherry Rehman   
Tenure: March 2015 to March 2021
Province: Sindh
Party: Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP)
Seat Description: General
In Vice of: Abdul Latif Ansari

Office Number: 051-9100056
Home Number: 021-35871083
Mobile Number: 0300-8222881, 0345-2000375
Fax Number: 021-3583721
E-mail: sherryrehman@gmail.com
Local Address: House No.21, Street 37, Sector F-7/1, Islamabad.
Permanent Address: H. No.F-49, Old Clifton Saddar Town, Karachi.
Qualification: BA (HON) Smiths College Massachusetts (1985)
Leader of the Opposition, House of Federation, Senate of Pakistan (till 24-8-18)
Vice President, Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP),
founding Chair and serving President, the Jinnah Institute.

Pakistan’s first woman Senate Opposition Leader, Vice-President PPPP, Senator Sherry Rehman, served as Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States from 2011 to 2013 and as Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Pakistan from 2008 to 2009. Rehman is a ranking member of the Public Accounts Committee and National Security Committee of Parliament. Rehman is also the Chair of the Pakistan Peoples Party Foreign Affairs Committee. Rehman held three additional portfolios of Health, Women Development and Culture as Federal Minister in 2008. In 2009 she resigned all her cabinet posts in a successful bid to thwart a curtailment of media freedoms.

Rehman is also the founding Chair and serving President of the Jinnah Institute, a non-partisan public policy think tank committed to the strengthening of democracy, governance and an independent national security project in Pakistan. As serving President of the institute, Rehman identifies its core priorities as the regaining of space for moderate voices in the context of an extremist advance. She co-chairs several track-two strategic dialogues with India, and is convener of a similar institutionalized dialogue process between Pakistan and Afghanistan. She lectures widely on strategic security challenges facing Pakistan, and was a key member of the Legislative Councils that govern both Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

Rehman, the former editor of the “Herald” newsmagazine based in Pakistan, is also an award-winning journalist with 20 years of experience in both the broadcast and the print media. Rehman studied art history and politics at the Smith College, USA, and the University of Sussex, UK. In her capacity as a senior journalist, Rehman has been the first Pakistani media person to be recognized by the UK House of Lords for independent journalism at the Annual British Muslim Ceremony in 2002.

As Federal Minister and on behalf of the democratic government led by the PPP, Rehman made history by preparing and delivering Pakistan’s first comprehensive briefing on National Security to an in camera joint sitting of Pakistan’s Parliament in October 2008. The briefing led to the adoption of the Joint Resolution on Terrorism, the first ever official consensus by public representatives on the issue of terrorism in the country.

Rehman is also the architect of the first parliamentary charter and bill for women empowerment, mover of the Hudood Ordinances Repeal Bill, mover of the Anti-Honour Killings Bill, as well as the Freedom of Information Act 2004. Her bills include the removal of colonial press laws in Pakistan, as well as legislation on Domestic Violence and Affirmative Action for women. As Minister, she moved the first government bill of the 2008 National Assembly for the repeal of martial law-led anti-media clauses in the Electronic Media Regulatory Ordinance. In August 2008, Rehman’s move to repeal similar amendments in the Print and Publication Ordinance paved the way for constitutional protection for the print media (RTI Bill).

As a political activist, Rehman has served as President of Central Policy Planning for three terms, and the Central Information Secretary of the Pakistan Peoples Party for two terms. Rehman has also served as Chairperson of the Pakistan Red Crescent Society in 2011.

Rehman was awarded the title of ‘Democracy’s Hero’ in 2009 by the International Republican Institute for her services for democracy. She was also presented ‘The Freedom Award’ Pakistan in 2009 by the Association of Television Journalists for her work for media independence in Pakistan. In 2008, she was presented the International Peace Award for Democrats by the International Human Rights Commission. She was awarded the Jeanne Kirkpatrick Award for Women in 2011. The March 2011 issue of Newsweek Pakistan ranked her on its cover as “Pakistan’s Most Important Woman”. Foreign Policy magazine has identified Rehman as one of 2011’s Top Global Thinkers.

In civil society, Rehman has been an active proponent for the provision of better access to health and educational resources, particularly for women and children from the lower-income sections of Pakistani society. In this respect, Rehman served as Chair of the Lady Dufferin Foundation Trust, the largest non-profit provider of women and children’s subsidized healthcare in the province of Sindh. In her nine-year term as Chair, Rehman spearheaded the construction of a state-of the art seven-storey hospital building at the 100-year old Dufferin Hospital.

Rehman has also served on the board of several educational institutions, namely the Sindh University and the International School in Karachi as well as the Mohatta Palace Gallery Trust. Rehman is also one of the founding members of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, and on the Syndicate of the Quaid-e-Azam University.

Sherry Rehman co-authored the book ‘Five Hundred Years of The Kashmiri Shawl’ with Naheed Jafri, which was published in 2006 by Mapin India and Antique Collectors Club, UK. That same year, it was awarded the prestigious R. L. Shep Ethnic Textiles Book Award from the Textile Society of America.

For her services to Pakistan, she was awarded the state’s highest civil award, the Nishan-i-Imtiaz in March 2013.