Fayyaz ul Hassan Chohan


Fayaz-ul-Hasan Chohan is a Pakistani politician who has been a member of Provincial Assembly of the Punjab since August 2018. He is currently serving as the Provisional Minister of Punjab for Colonies since 6 July 2019. He has previously served as Provincial Minister of Punjab for Information and Culture from 27 August 2018 to 5 March 2019. He was again appointed on 2 December 2019 as provincial minister for information and culture.

Early life and education

He was born on 21 May 1970 in Lahore in a Chohan family of the Gujjar tribe.
He received the degree of Master of Arts in Economics from the University of the Punjab in 1994 and is a computer software engineer by profession.

Political career

Associated with the Jamaat-e-Islami, he was elected to the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab as a candidate of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal from Constituency PP-14 in 2002 Pakistani general election. He received 13,738 votes and defeated Rashid Naseem Abbasi, a candidate of Pakistan Peoples Party. From 12 August 2003 till dissolution of assembly in 2007, he was the Chairperson of Standing Committee on Social Welfare, Women Development and Bait-ul-Maal and member of Standing Committee on Revenue, Relief & Consolidation.
He ran for the seat of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab as a candidate of Pakistan Muslim League from Constituency from PP-14 in 2008 Pakistani general election but was unsuccessful. He received 4,166 votes and lost the seat to Hanif Abbasi.
He was re-elected to the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab as a candidate of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf from Constituency PP-17 in 2018 Pakistani general election. He received 40,919 votes and defeated Raja Abdul Hanif.
On 27 August 2018, he was inducted into the provincial Punjab cabinet of Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar and was appointed as Provincial Minister of Punjab for information and culture.
He resigned as Provincial Minister of Punjab for Information and Culture on 5 March 2019 after intense criticism over his offensive remarks against the Hindu community.
On 5 July 2019 he was re-inducted into Provincial Punjab Cabinet of Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar and was appointed as Provincial Minister of Punjab for Colonies.
On 2 December 2019, He was again appointed as Provincial Minister of Punjab for Information and Culture.
On 20 March 2020, he made some controversial comments about disabled persons, saying that peoples with disabilities are born because it was a punishment from Allah for their parents.

Views

He has expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler.
Chohan is known for using foul language and name-calling against his opponents on TV talk shows and has been criticized by the media as "rude" politician.
Shortly after becoming Provincial Minister of Punjab for information and culture in August 2018, he stirred a controversy when he used obscene language against TV channel staff during an interview on 30 August 2018. The same day, he was videotaped passing "vulgar and derogatory misogynistic remarks" against female artists of Lollywood. Both incidents earned him severe criticism.
Fayyaz resigned in March 2019 from the Punjab provincial cabinet after some of his remarks in the wake of India-Pakistan conflict in 2019. In order to highlight how exalted his motherland Pakistan is vis-a-vis India, he downgraded Indians using vulgar and derogatory comments. This was particularly derogatory to the Hindu community of his country. He was asked for a clarification from Pakistan Punjab Province Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar and Prime Minister Imran Khan. Though Chohan apologized, he had to resign from the cabinet.