Sharmila Farooqi

Sharmila Farooqi (Urdu: شرمیلا فاروقی ‎) (born January 25, 1978) is a politician from Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. who served as an advisor to the Chief Minister of Sindh from September 2008 till January 31,201. She was very much active on tv talkshoes in order to protect her party from corruption allegations. ^[1]^[2] She is the maternal granddaughter of N M Uqaili, former Pakistan Minister of Finance and daughter of Usman Farooqi, who was a bureaucrat and a former Chairman of Pakistan Steel Mill. Farooqi is the niece of Salman Farooqi, a well-known confidante of ex-President Asif Ali Zardari.^[3] Farooqi earned her Master of Business Administration from the Adamson Institute of Business Administration and Technology, Karachi and a Master of Laws degree.^[3] Sharmila Farooqi is engaged to Hasham Riaz Sheikh, a former Wall Street investment banker and presently an advisor to the former President Asif Ali Zardari.^[4]^[5]

Corruption

In 2001, Sharmila Farooqi along with her father Usman Farooqi, a former chairman of Pakistan Steel Mills, embezzled Rs 195 billion from Pakistan Steel Mills and Government of Pakistan through political corruption and fraud.^[6] Anisa Farooqi, mother of Sharmila, entered into a plea bargain with the National Accountability Bureau on 28 April 2001 after being arrested with First Information Report (FIR) No. 19/96, and given into the custody of the Ehtesab Cell by the Special Judge, Central II, handling cases of top corrupt public servants like Usman Farooqi.^[7]^[8]^[9] Sharmila Farooqi and her family was extensively investigated by officers of the National Accountability Bureau, Federal Investigation Agency and officials Karachi Electric Supply Corporation due to the non-payment of electricity bills worth Rs 1 million.^[3]