Profile: Swati first-ever KP PA speaker from Mansehra

MANSEHRA: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-Sunni Ittehad Council Alliance leader Babar Saleem Swati has set history by becoming the first-ever speaker of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly from the Mansehra district.

Swati, PTI Hazara division president, was elected from PK-37 Mansehra-II in Feb elections as an independent contestant.

Born on June 3, 1962, he was raised in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Swati tribe. He received his early education from Islamic Public School, Mansehra, and passed his F.Sc from the Edwardes College, Peshawar. Though his family had been in politics since pre-Partition, Swati joined politics by leaving an executive post at the Pakistan State Oil after the sudden death of his elder brother Amjad Saleem Khan Swati.

He was elected Union Council Nazim in the 2001 local government election.

He joined the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and quit it after he was refused the party ticket in the 2013 general elections and joined the PTI as its district president.

He was elected an MPA for the first time in the 2018 general elections on the PTI ticket and became the chief minister’s adviser on interior.