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Ms Sherry Rehman is a senior
Pakistani politician, journalist, parliamentarian and the
member of the Pakistan Peoples Party. Born in Karachi, she
has studied art, history and politics at Smith College
Massachusetts, US; and at the University of Sussex, UK.
Sherry Rehman has been a professional journalist for twenty
years. She has served as Editor of Pakistan’s prestigious
newsmagazine, Herald, for ten years. She has wide experience
in both print and broadcast media. Her bold and creative
journalistic style earned her ranking among the top
journalists of the country. She has also anchored a
television show on current affairs in 1999. Sherry Rehman
regularly writes for national and international newspapers
and newsmagazine.
In March 2008, Sherry Rehman was declared re-elected Member
of the National Assembly as PPP candidate from the Sindh
province on the list for reserved seats for women. Previous
to this she was an MNA from 2002 to 2007 and Central
Information Secretary as well as President of Policy
Planning of the Pakistan Peoples Party. Her interests in the
National Assembly include foreign and security policy,
women’s status and rights legislation, and media policies.
In the National Assembly, Rehman has served as Convener of
the Parliamentary Sub-Committee on Media and Public
Diplomacy for Kashmir and Member of the Special
Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir, and Foreign Relations
Committee in PPP. During her five years in the parliament,
Sherry Rehman moved a number of bills related to media
freedom, women’s empowerment and human rights. She is the
architect of all the five PPP bills tabled in the National
Assembly: Women Empowerment Bill, Anti-Honor Killings Bill,
Domestic Violence Prevention Bill, Affirmative Action Bill
and Hudood Repeal Bill. She also moved two Bills for the
Media: the Freedom of Information Bill and the Press Act,
which prevents working journalists from being arrested under
the 1999 Press Ordinance.
She was leader of Pakistan delegation at the Asian
Parliamentarians’ Conference in December 2004 for the
Islamabad Declaration Committee. Earlier she has had the
privilege of representing Pakistan at the UN General
Assembly session in 1994. She has also lectured at the
School of Advanced International Studies at John Hopkins
University in November 2004.
She served as a member of the Council of Pakistan Newspaper
Editors (CPNE) from 1988-1998. She also headed the team that
prepared the PPP Manifesto for the 2008 elections.
In civil society, Sherry Rehman has been an active proponent
for the provision of better access to health and educational
resources, particularly for women and children from the
lower-income sections of Pakistani society. She is the
Chairman of the Lady Dufferin Foundation Trust, the largest
non-profit provider of women and children’s subsidized
health-care in the province of Sindh.
Sherry Rehman’s latest book “The Kashmiri Shawl: From
Jamawar to Paisley”, that she co-authored with Ms Naheed
Jafri, was published in 2006. The book has been selected for
R.L Shep Ethnic Textiles Book Award for 2006, in the US. Ms
Rehman will receive her award at the 11th Beinnial Symposium
of the Textile Society of America, in Hawai, in September
2008.
Sherry Rehman is the first Pakistani to be recognized with
an award for independent journalism by the UK House of Lords
in its Muslim World Awards Ceremony in the year 2002.
Sherry Rehman is married to renowned banker Nadeem Hussain
who is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Tameer
Microfinance Bank.
Sherry Rehman was sworn in as Federal Minister for
Information and Broadcasting on Mar 31, 2008.
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