Begum Kulsum Saifullah Khan | |
Birth Date: | 7 December 1924 |
Birth Place: | Karak, Kohat, British India |
Nationality: | Pakistani |
Occupation: | Politician and businesswoman |
Awards: | Hilal-i-Imtiaz (Crescent of Distinction) Award by the President of Pakistan in 2008 |
Begum Kulsum Saifullah Khan (7 December 1924 – 26 December 2014) was a Pakistani businesswoman, politician, industrialist and a social worker from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. She was chairperson of the Saif Group of companies from 1964 to 1990. Begum Kulsum served as a parliamentarian and a federal minister in Pakistan in the 1970s and 1980s.[1] [2]
Kulsum was born in 1924 in Karak in Kohat into a Pashtun family. She was a sister of two Pakistani politicians of the area Muhammad Aslam Khan Khattak and Yusuf Khattak.[1]
Kulsum was married to a then well-known businessman of Ghaznikhel Lakki Marwat, Khan Saifullah Khan, who was a Khan of the Marwat Tribe.She had five sons with him: Anwar Saifullah Khan, Salim Saifullah Khan, Humayun Saifullah Khan, Javed Saifullah Khan and the Cardiologist Iqbal Saifullah Khan.[1]
She went ahead and developed her late husband's business to the extent that as of 2017; it is one of the leading business conglomerates of Pakistan in the fields of textiles, power generation, oil and gas exploration and telecommunications industries.[1]
She was jailed during General Zia Ul-Haq's presidency in Pakistan.[3]