Abdul Ghafoor Haideri (1957-) was Deputy Chairman of the Senate of Pakistan from 12 March 2015, succeeding Sabir Ali Baloch. Haideri was a member of the Islamist JUI-F party.
Biography[]
Abdul Ghafoor Haideri was born in Gazag, Kalat, Pakistan in 1957 to a family of Sunni Muslim Balochs, and he completed his religious education in 1979. Haideri was twice imprisoned for his activism with Islamist groups during the 1970s, and he became General Secretary of the JUI-F party in 1983. In 1990, he was elected to the Provincial Assembly of Balochistan after working as a teacher, and he was elected to the National Assembly of Pakistan in 1993. In 2015, he was elected to the Senate, and he became Deputy Chairman of the Senate. On 12 May 2017, he was targeted by the Islamic State in the 2017 Mastung suicide bombing, but he was not harmed; 28 people were killed and 40 wounded by suicide bomber Abu Handhala al-Khurasani.