Muhammad Rafiq Tarar [Born 1929]
On January 1,1998, Mr. Muhammad Rafiq Tarar, took the oath of office as the ninth President of Islamic Republic of Pakistan. He secured an all time high number of votes from an electoral college consisting of total membership of the two houses of the Parliament and the four provincial legislatures. No one before him received such overwhelming support from the elected representatives of the people of Pakistan.
Muhammad Rafiq Tarar was born on November 2, 1929, in a middle-class family of village Pirkot in District Gujranwala near Lahore. After graduating from Islamia College, Gujranwala in 1949, Mr. Tarar secured his Law Degree (L.L.B.) from Law College, Lahore, in the year 1951. The same year he was enrolled as a pleader. In October 1955, he was enrolled as an advocate in the Lahore High Court. He established a practice in Gujranwala before rising to the position of Chairman, Punjab Labour Court in 1970. Four years later he entered the High Court and was appointed as Chief Justice of Lahore High Court. Earlier, during his days as Judge of the LHC, he also served as member Pakistan Election Commission. Mr. Justice Muhammad Rafiq Tarar was elevated as the Judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 1991 from which he retired in November 1994 on attaining the age of 65 years.
Following his retirement from Judiciary in March 1997, Mr. Tarar moved from a legal to a political career. He was elected as Member, Senate on PML (N) ticket. On December 31,1997, he was elected as the President of Pakistan. His appointment as the President is widely attributed to his close ties with the family of the then Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mian M. Nawaz Sharif.
On June 20, 2001, by virtue of a Provisional Constitutional Order, he was replaced by Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who himself became the President.
Mr. Tarar fondly recounts his light moments, mostly relating to his role as a volunteer in relief camps set up by Muslim Students Federation for refugees from the riot-torn India to Pakistan in 1947. Mr. Tarar has a passion for poetry and literature. He has a deep insight into classic Persian Literature. He is married and has four children, three sons and one daughter.