Known for founding the socially progressive Pakistan Awami Tehreek political party, he also served in the Pakistani National Assembly. He later established Minhaj-ul-Quran International, an organization dedicated to the promotion of peaceful dialogue between members of different faiths.
He earned both an LLB and a PhD in Law from the University of the Punjab-Lahore.
In 2010, he published a six-hundred-page-long document that expressed the view that terrorism is unacceptable, unjustifiable, and at odds with Islamic ideology.
A native of Jhang, Pakistan, he was raised in the Muslim faith.
He and his much more controversial contemporary, Altaf Hussain, both founded political parties and movements in Pakistan.
