Ghulam Mustafa Khar

Ghulam Mustafa Khar Malik, (born August 2, 1937 in Muzaffargarh) was a close ally of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his chief minister in Punjab, Pakistan during the 1970s,also Khar was one of the founders of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Khar was also jailed by the Zia ul Haq regime after the 1977 coup.

After sometime in the political wilderness (famously calling Bhutto the 'maharaja of Larkana') he rejoined Bhutto before the 1977 general elections. Arrested after the imposition of martial law, Khar slipped out of the country after an understanding with General Chishti (a General Zia-ul-Haq's comrade). He promptly went back into opposition politics after leaving the country a fact which infuriated Zia and led to the withdrawal of an offer to Khar's close friend Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi to become Prime Minister.

Returning to Pakistan before 1988, Khar had by then had fallen out with Benazir Bhutto and with Army backing created the National Peoples Party (NPP) along with Jatoi and other PPP dissidents. The Army believed they needed to neutralize Benazir Bhutto's influence in Sindh with a Sindhi and wanted to use Jatoi for that, Khar in the meantime contested for several seats in the Punjab and won all of them. However, Jatoi suffered a shock defeat.

Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi became caretaker Prime Minister in 1990 after Benazir's removal but Punjab's Chief Minister and Khar's rival Nawaz Sharif outmaneuvered Jatoi and ended up being Prime Minister. Khar eventually ended up rejoining the PPP before the 1993 elections. Re-elected, he served as Federal Minister for Water and Power under Benazir Bhutto. Defeated in the 1997 election, he was unable to contest the 2002 elections because of a restriction placed on non-graduates from contesting the elections.

Khar then rejoined the PPP and began campaigning to become the Party President for Punjab province. In 2007, Khar was removed from the PPP by Benazir Bhutto due to his controversial statements regarding the deal between Benazir and General Musharraf. He also had a war of words with the secretary general of the PPPP Jehangir Badar , who was called a political orphan by Khar.

Khar has been married numerous times and his relationship with Tehmina Durrani, one of his seven wives is in particular famous, as she wrote a book called "My Feudal Lord" on her husband , in which she describes the alleged abuse given to her by Khar.

In detail coverage on his personality traits, chronology of the events in Pakistan's political landscape etc can be found in the book "My Feudal Lord" by Tehmina Durrani.