Quick Facts
Biography
Syed Ali Haider Zaidi is a Pakistani politician who is the current Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs, in office since 11 September 2018. He has been a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan since August 2018. He is a businessman by profession and owns asset management and brokerage firm, and pak manzil.com.
Political career
Zaidi joinedPakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in 1999.
He ran for the seat of the Provincial Assembly of Sindh as a candidate of PTI from Constituency PS-116 (Karachi-XXVIII) in 2002 general election but was unsuccessful. He received 2,941 votes and lost the seat to Nasrullah Khan, a candidate of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA).
He ran for the seat of the National Assembly of Pakistan as a candidate of PTI from Constituency NA-252 (Karachi-XIV) and from Constituency NA-208 (Jacobabad) in 2013 general election but was unsuccessful. He received 49,622 votes from NA-252 (Karachi-XIV and lost the seat to Abdul Rashid Godil). He received 7,589 votes from NA-208 (Jacobabad) and lost the seat to Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani.
On 25 December 2014, he was appointed as president of PTI's Karachi chapter. In December 2015, he announced to resign as president of PTI Karachi in the aftermath of party's poor performance in local government elections.
In July 2017, Saleem Safi accused Zaidi of working against Saudi Arabia and in favor of Iranian lobby groups. Zaidi rejected the allegations.
He was elected to the National Assembly from Constituency NA-244 (Karachi East-III) as a candidate of PTI in 2018 general election.
On 11 September 2018, he was inducted into the federal cabinet of Prime Minister Imran Khan and was appointed as Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs.