Safdar Ali Abbasi

Abbasi was born in Karachi, Pakistan, on 26 December 1957. His family had long been involved in politics.[1] Abbasi's mother, Ashraf Abbasi, was at one time the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan. Abbasi attended Aitchison College, Lahore, completing Cambridge and Intermediate studies before pursuing a medical degree at Dow Medical College, Karachi. He was interested and involved in local politics during his youth.[1]

Abbasi contested the elections for Dow Medical College Students Union in 1981 through the National Students Federation.

He joined the PPP, as he approved the positions of the late President and Premier of Pakistan Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. He was exiled during the martial law period. In 1986, he became a political assistant to Benazir Bhutto. When she became Prime Minister in 1988 he was appointed her Political Secretary, a position he retained through 1993.

In March 1994, Abbasi was elected for a six-year term to the Senate of Pakistan, where he served on the Senate Standing Committee on Commerce, Local Government and Rural Development and on the Senate Standing Committee for Health, Social Welfare and Special Education.[1] In 2006, he was re-elected for an additional six-year term.

Safdar Abbasi and his wife, Naheed Khan, faced many problems after Benazir Bhutto's assassination on December 27, 2007, in Liaquat Bagh. Both were considered close to Benazir Bhutto and sidelined under the new leadership of Asif Ali Zardari, along with her other close advisers.[2]

Since Benazir Bhutto's death, many of the party workers who were close to her lost their positions in the Zardari government, including party worker and leader of the lawyers movement in Pakistan Aitezaz Ahsan. Instead, many new figures were introduced to fill these positions.[3][4]