Fawad Ahmed Chaudhry, also known by the name of Fawad Hussain Chaudhry, is a Pakistani politician who is the current Minister for Information and Broadcasting, in office since 20 August 2018. He has been a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan since August 2018. He is currently serving as spokesperson and Secretary Information of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.
Previously he served in the federal cabinet of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani and Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf as Special Assistant for information and political affairs, and Political Affairs, respectively, between April 2012 and March 2013.
Personal life
Born into a Jat family of the Vains clan, he's a lawyer by profession.
Political career
He ran for the seat of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab as an independent candidate from Constituency PP-25 (Jhelum-II) in Pakistani general election, 2002 but was unsuccessful. He received only 161 votes and lost the seat to Chaudhry Tasneem Nasir, a candidate of Pakistan Muslim League (Q) (PML-Q) who received 38,626 votes.
In January 2012, he resigned as media coordinator of All Pakistan Muslim League (APML). In March 2012, he quit APML and joined Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). In April 2012, he was inducted into the federal cabinet of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani and was appointed as special assistant to Prime Minister for information and political affairs with the status of a minister of state where he continued to serve until June 2012 when the federal cabinet was dissolved following the disqualification of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani. In July 2012, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf was elected Prime Minister and Chaudhry was re-inducted into the federal cabinet. He was appointed as Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Political Affairs where he served until March 2013.
He ran for the seat of the National Assembly of Pakistan as a candidate of PML-Q from NA-63 (Jhelum-II) in Pakistani general election, 2013 but was unsuccessful. He received 34,072 votes and lost the seat to Malik Iqbal Mehdi Khan. In the same election, he also ran for the seat of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab as an independent candidate from Constituency PP-24 (Jhelum-I) but was unsuccessful. He received only 82 votes and lost the seat to Raja Muhammad Awais Khan.
In June 2016, he joined Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
He ran for the seat of the National Assembly as a candidate of PTI from Constituency Constituency NA-63 (Jhelum-II) in by-election held in August 2016 but was unsuccessful. He received 74,819 votes and lost the seat to Nawabzada Raja Matloob Mehdi.
In November 2016, he was appointed the spokesperson of PTI. In March 2018, he was given the additional charge of Secretary Information of PTI after the resignation of Shafqat Mahmood.
In June 2018, he was allocated PTI ticket to contest the Pakistani general election, 2018 from Constituency NA-67 (Jhelum-II). An election tribunal rejected the nomination papers of Chaudhry after a petition was filed claiming Fawad had not paid agriculture tax. The Lahore High Court allowed Chaudhry to contest the election after he filed an appeal in the court against the election tribunal's decision.
He was elected to the National Assembly as a candidate of PTI from Constituency NA-67 (Jhelum-II) in 2018 general election. He received 93,102 votes and defeated Nawabzada Raja Matloob Mehdi, a candidate of Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML-N). In the same election, he was also elected to the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab as a candidate of PTI from Constituency PP-27 (Jhelum-III). He received 67,003 votes and defeated Nasir Mehmood, a candidate of PML-N. Following his successful election, he expressed interest to become the Chief Ministers of Punjab in a TV talk show.
On 18 August, Imran Khan formally announced his federal cabinet structure and Chaudhry was named as Minister for Information and Broadcasting. On 20 August 2018, he was swear in as Minister for Information and Broadcasting in the federal cabinet of Prime Minister Imran Khan.