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Shahid Khaqan Abbasi … the ‘Other Face’ of Pakistan’s Nawaz Sharif

Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. (AFP)
Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. (AFP)
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Shahid Khaqan Abbasi … the ‘Other Face’ of Pakistan’s Nawaz Sharif

Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. (AFP)
Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. (AFP)

New Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has a good reputation for being a hardworking politician and for never losing any elections since he entered the political field in 1988.

He was elected to parliament six times since 1988, thereby winning all the races he has entered. He is also a loyal follower of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. This is the reason why he was chosen to succeed him after a court decision that led to his resignation.

One the eve of Abbasi’s election as premier, Mariam Nawaz Sharif tweeted that the new premier was “another face of Nawaz Sharif.”

“I have faith that the real Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will return to his post,” she added.

Abbasi retorted however by declaring: “I am the prime minister of the country, whether for 45 days or 45 hours. I am not here to reserve the seat for someone else.”

He called for respecting the constitution, saying that political life, which had its reputation tarnished, will regain its respect.

“We are all in the same boat whether you are in the government, bureaucratic system, opposition or army. If there is a hole in the boat, then we will all sink.”

In his first speech since being elected as PM, Abbasi focused on reviving the economy and improving the legal system throughout Pakistan.

Born in Karachi in 1958, he received his early education in Pakistan before traveling to the United States where he earned a Bachelor’s degree from the University of California. He then pursued a master’s degree in electrical engineering from George Washington University in the US capital.

Before entering the political field, he served as engineer in several projects in the US and Middle East. He also worked in the oil industry sector in Saudi Arabia.

Abbasi hails from a family that is active in politics. His father Khaqan Abbasi was a general in the airforce and worked in the country’s national assembly He also served as a minister of production under the premiership of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq.

He was killed in the 1988 Ojhri camp explosion that left over a hundred people dead and 1,000 wounded. Abbasi kicked off his political career following the death of his father

PM Abbasi’s sister was also a member of the ruling party in Pakistan in the 1990s.

The premier also owns private jets that operate in Pakistan and in 2003, he established AirBlue Limited, an aviation company that he chaired until 2007. He also acted as president of Pakistan International Airlines between 1997 and 1999 during Sharif’s second term as prime minister.

On August 1, Abbasi was chosen to become premier following Sharif’s ouster over his links to the so-called “Panama Papers”.

On the political level, Abbasi is known for the service he provides for his electoral district of Murree. Mohammed Islam, a government employee who hails from Murree, said that Abbasi worked tirelessly to establish a network of roads in the area. He also worked to build schools and hospitals in the district.

Abbasi had however been subject to accusations, along with Sharif and others, in the famous plane hijacking incident during the term of Prime Minister General Pervez Musharraf in the late 1990s. Abbasi was accused of preventing the landing of a plane, which was transporting Musharraf from a visit to Sri Lank to Karachi airport. It was said that Abbasi came under great pressure to testify against Sharif in the 1999 incident, but he refused.

He was consequently jailed for two years and released in 2001. In 2008, Abbasi claimed during an interview that Musharraf himself had personally seized control of the plane during the “hijacking.”

With his election, Abbasi, 58, becomes the 18th prime minister of Pakistan.

Generally, he is seen as very smart and as one of Sharif’s most loyal followers. It is viewed however that his tenure as premier will be temporary and that it is paving the way for Sharif’s younger brother Shehbaz.

Nawaz himself had said that Abbasi will remain in his post for 45 days. During this time, Shehbaz will attempt to win national assembly elections that will make him qualified to become prime minister.

Informed sources in Islamabad said however that Nawaz may change his mind about Shehbaz becoming premier. A member of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League said he believes that Abbasi will be allowed to complete his term as premier.

Married with three children, Abbasi is considered to be one of the wealthiest lawmakers in Pakistan with a fortune of 1.3 billion rupees (12 million dollars). He holds stocks in AirBlue and owns a house in Islamabad, as well as a restaurant and property in Murree.

Abbasi became prime minister at a tense political time in Pakistan due to the disputes between its various parties. There are fears in Islamabad that the upcoming days may witness a direct confrontation between Nawaz Sharif and a number of central institutions in the country, such as the military and supreme court.

It is certain that these confrontations, should they happen, will harm the political process in the country. Political analysts said that Abbasi will have to find a balance between the rival parties if he wants to keep his position.

The military after all had conspired to topple Sharif, but Abbasi and Shehbaz both have strong ties with this powerful institution.

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As the UN Turns 80, Its Crucial Humanitarian Aid Work Faces a Clouded Future

Students in an English class at a primary school run by URWA for Palestinian refugees at the Mar Elias refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, June 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Students in an English class at a primary school run by URWA for Palestinian refugees at the Mar Elias refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, June 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
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As the UN Turns 80, Its Crucial Humanitarian Aid Work Faces a Clouded Future

Students in an English class at a primary school run by URWA for Palestinian refugees at the Mar Elias refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, June 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Students in an English class at a primary school run by URWA for Palestinian refugees at the Mar Elias refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, June 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

At a refugee camp in northern Kenya, Aujene Cimanimpaye waits as a hot lunch of lentils and sorghum is ladled out for her and her nine children — all born while she has received United Nations assistance since fleeing her violence-wracked home in Congo in 2007.

“We cannot go back home because people are still being killed,” the 41-year-old said at the Kakuma camp, where the UN World Food Program and UN refugee agency help support more than 300,000 refugees, The Associated Press said.

Her family moved from Nakivale Refugee Settlement in neighboring Uganda three years ago to Kenya, now home to more than a million refugees from dozens of conflict-hit east African countries.

A few kilometers (miles) away at the Kalobeyei Refugee Settlement, fellow Congolese refugee Bahati Musaba, a mother of five, said that since 2016, “UN agencies have supported my children’s education — we get food and water and even medicine,” as well as cash support from WFP to buy food and other basics.

This year, those cash transfers — and many other UN aid activities — have stopped, threatening to upend or jeopardize millions of lives.

As the UN marks its 80th anniversary this month, its humanitarian agencies are facing one of the greatest crises in their history: The biggest funder — the United States — under the Trump administration and other Western donors have slashed international aid spending. Some want to use the money to build up national defense.

Some UN agencies are increasingly pointing fingers at one another as they battle over a shrinking pool of funding, said a diplomat from a top donor country who spoke on condition of anonymity to comment freely about the funding crisis faced by some UN agencies.

Such pressures, humanitarian groups say, diminish the pivotal role of the UN and its partners in efforts to save millions of lives — by providing tents, food and water to people fleeing unrest in places like Myanmar, Sudan, Syria and Venezuela, or helping stamp out smallpox decades ago.

“It’s the most abrupt upheaval of humanitarian work in the UN in my 40 years as a humanitarian worker, by far,” said Jan Egeland, a former UN humanitarian aid chief who now heads the Norwegian Refugee Council. “And it will make the gap between exploding needs and contributions to aid work even bigger.”

‘Brutal’ cuts to humanitarian aid programs UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has asked the heads of UN agencies to find ways to cut 20% of their staffs, and his office in New York has floated sweeping ideas about reform that could vastly reshape the way the United Nations doles out aid.

Humanitarian workers often face dangers and go where many others don’t — to slums to collect data on emerging viruses or drought-stricken areas to deliver water.

The UN says 2024 was the deadliest year for humanitarian personnel on record, mainly due to the war in Gaza. In February, it suspended aid operations in the stronghold of Yemen’s Houthi group, who have detained dozens of UN and other aid workers.

Proponents say UN aid operations have helped millions around the world affected by poverty, illness, conflict, hunger and other troubles.

Critics insist many operations have become bloated, replete with bureaucratic perks and a lack of accountability, and are too distant from in-the-field needs. They say postcolonial Western donations have fostered dependency and corruption, which stifles the ability of countries to develop on their own, while often UN-backed aid programs that should be time-specific instead linger for many years with no end in sight.

In the case of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning WFP and the UN’s refugee and migration agencies, the US has represented at least 40% of their total budgets, and Trump administration cuts to roughly $60 billion in US foreign assistance have hit hard. Each UN agency has been cutting thousands of jobs and revising aid spending.

“It's too brutal what has happened,” said Egeland, alluding to cuts that have jolted the global aid community. “However, it has forced us to make priorities ... what I hope is that we will be able to shift more of our resources to the front lines of humanity and have less people sitting in offices talking about the problem.”

With the UN Security Council's divisions over wars in Ukraine and the Middle East hindering its ability to prevent or end conflict in recent years, humanitarian efforts to vaccinate children against polio or shelter and feed refugees have been a bright spot of UN activity. That's dimming now.

Not just funding cuts cloud the future of UN humanitarian work

Aside from the cuts and dangers faced by humanitarian workers, political conflict has at times overshadowed or impeded their work.

UNRWA, the aid agency for Palestinian refugees, has delivered an array of services to millions — food, education, jobs and much more — in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan as well as in the West Bank and Gaza since its founding in 1948.

Israel claims the agency's schools fan antisemitic and anti-Israel sentiment, which the agency denies. Israel says Hamas siphons off UN aid in Gaza to profit from it, while UN officials insist most aid gets delivered directly to the needy.

“UNRWA is like one of the foundations of your home. If you remove it, everything falls apart,” said Issa Haj Hassan, 38, after a checkup at a small clinic at the Mar Elias Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut.

UNRWA covers his diabetes and blood pressure medication, as well as his wife’s heart medicine. The United States, Israel's top ally, has stopped contributing to UNRWA; it once provided a third of its funding. Earlier this year, Israel banned the aid group, which has strived to continue its work nonetheless.

Ibtisam Salem, a single mother of five in her 50s who shares a small one-room apartment in Beirut with relatives who sleep on the floor, said: “If it wasn’t for UNRWA we would die of starvation. ... They helped build my home, and they give me health care. My children went to their schools.”

Especially when it comes to food and hunger, needs worldwide are growing even as funding to address them shrinks.

“This year, we have estimated around 343 million acutely food insecure people,” said Carl Skau, WFP deputy executive director. “It’s a threefold increase if we compare four years ago. And this year, our funding is dropping 40%. So obviously that’s an equation that doesn’t come together easily.”

Billing itself as the world's largest humanitarian organization, WFP has announced plans to cut about a quarter of its 22,000 staff.

The aid landscape is shifting

One question is how the United Nations remains relevant as an aid provider when global cooperation is on the outs, and national self-interest and self-defense are on the upswing.

The United Nations is not alone: Many of its aid partners are feeling the pinch. Groups like GAVI, which tries to ensure fair distribution of vaccines around the world, and the Global Fund, which spends billions each year to help battle HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, have been hit by Trump administration cuts to the US Agency for International Development.

Some private-sector, government-backed groups also are cropping up, including the divisive Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has been providing some food to Palestinians. But violence has erupted as crowds try to reach the distribution sites.

The future of UN aid, experts say, will rest where it belongs — with the world body's 193 member countries.

“We need to take that debate back into our countries, into our capitals, because it is there that you either empower the UN to act and succeed — or you paralyze it,” said Achim Steiner, administrator of the UN Development Program.