Zahid Hamid

Zahid Hamid (Urdu: زاهد حميد), is a Pakistani politician, and lawyer, who is the current Minister for Law and Justice and Minister of Climate Change in the Third Sharif ministry. A member of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), Hamid previously briefly served as the Minister of Law and Justice in June 2013 and as Minister of Science and Technology from June 2013 to November 2014.
Hamid is a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan since 2002 representing Sialkot.

Hamid was born in Parur, Punjab, Pakistan, on 24 October 1947. to Hamid Nawaz, who served in the Pakistan Army and retired as a Brigadier in 1975 and later served as foreign service to tenured as diplomat in various countries. Hamid's brother Shahid Hamid, served as Governor of Punjab in 1997 and senior leader in Pakistan Muslim League.

After graduating from local school, Hamid attended the Punjab University where he studied law. In 1971, he graduated with a LLB in law from the Punjab University; for higher studies, Hamid went to United Kingdom to attend the Cambridge University. He graduated with a BA with honours in Philosophy and worked on the post-graduate studies. He gained MA degree where his work contained the fundamentals of philosophy of law. In addition, Hamid has attended the seminars on management at the Business school of the Harvard University; and further specialised in law from International Development Law Organization based in Rome, Italy.

In 1970, Hamid passed the CSS exam to join the Central Superior Services (CSS) where he worked with the provincial government of Punjab but resigned in 1978 from the CSS to start career in politics. He set up and managed two industrial units in the food sector from 1978 to 1988.

Hamid started his career as professional lawyer and eventually becoming a senior advocate at the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

In the 1990s, he establishmed the Environmental Protection Agency authorised by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1997 and appointed as the first Director-General of the Environmental Protection Agency until being dismissed by General Pervez Musharraf after staging a self-coup in 1999.

Following the military takeover, Hamid defected to the PML(N)'s splinter group led by Shuja'at Hussain, and successfully participated for NA-114 constituency during the general elections held nationwide in 2002. From 2004 to 2007, he tenured as Minister of State for Defence, Investment and Privatization; in 2008, he had been elevated as the Minister of Law in the Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights.

In 2008, Hamid joined the PML(N). In 2013, Hamid participated in Pakistani general elections, 2013 and elected as member of National Assembly from his constituency NA-114. He appointed as Law Minister in the Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights, but later he was reassigned to Science ministry Due to the treason trial of Pervez Musharraf. Hamid abruptly resigned from the Science ministry after the special court inducted him on a Musharraf treason trial. On upon hearing the court's decision, Hamid tendered his resignation to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Later he was made Minister of Climate Change and in 2016, Hamid was given the additional portfolio of the Minister of Law and Justice.