H.E. Ambassador Sherry Rehman

Sherry Rehman has served as Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Pakistan (2008-09) and ranking member of the National Security Committee in the Parliament. She also held three additional portfolios of Health, Women Development and Culture as Federal Minister in 2008. Her interests in the Parliament include foreign and security policy, human rights legislation, and media.

Sherry Rehman is the founding Chair of the Jinnah Institute, a non-partisan public policy think tank committed to the strengthening of democracy, governance and an independent national security project in Pakistan. She co-chairs several track-two strategic dialogues with India, and is convener of a similar institutionalized dialogue process between Pakistan and Afghanistan. In 2011, she also served as Chairperson of the Pakistan Red Crescent Society.

With 20 years of experience in both the broadcast and the print media, Sherry Rehman is also an award-winning journalist. In her capacity as a senior journalist, she has been the first Pakistani media person to be recognized by the UK House of Lords for independent journalism at the Annual British Muslim Ceremony in 2002.

As Federal Minister and on behalf of the democratic government led by the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Sherry Rehman made history by preparing and delivering a comprehensive briefing on National Security to an in camera joint sitting of Pakistan’s Parliament in October 2008. The briefing led to the adoption of the Joint Resolution on Terrorism, the first ever official consensus by public representatives on the issue of terrorism in the country.

Sherry Rehman is also the architect of the first parliamentary charter and bill for women empowerment, mover of the Hudood Ordinances Repeal Bill, mover of the Anti-Honour Killings Bill, as well as the Freedom of Information Act 2004. Her bills include the removal of colonial press laws in Pakistan, as well as legislation on domestic violence and affirmative action for women.

In civil society, Sherry Rehman has been an active proponent for the provision of better access to health and educational resources, particularly for women and children from the lower-income sections of Pakistani society. In this respect, she is Chair of the Lady Dufferin Foundation Trust, the largest non-profit provider of women and children’s subsidized healthcare in the province of Sindh. Furthermore, Sherry Rehman is one of the founding members of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, and on the Syndicate of the Quaid-e-Azam University.

From 2011 to 2013, Sherry Rehman served as Pakistan’s Ambassador to United States. Before her designation, she was Member of Parliament in the National Assembly of Pakistan from the Pakistan People’s Party for her second term.

For her work, Sherry Rehman was awarded several titles and presented various wards, such as the title of ‘Democracy’s Hero’ (2009) by the International Republican Institute, ‘The Freedom Award’ Pakistan (2009) by the Association of Television Journalists, the International Peace Award for Democrats (2008) by the International Human Rights Commission, and the Jeanne Kirkpatric Award for Women (2011). The March 2011 issue of Newsweek Pakistan ranked her on its cover as “Pakistan’s Most Important Woman”. Foreign Policy magazine has identified Sherry Rehman as one of 2011’s Top Global Thinkers.

For her services to Pakistan, Sherry Rehman was awarded the state's highest civil award, the Nishan-i-Imtiaz, in March 2013.