Syed Sardar Ali Shah

Syed Sardar Ali Shah is a Pakistani politician who served as the Provincial Minister of Sindh for Education, Culture, Tourism, and Antiquities and Archives. He had been a member of the Provincial Assembly of Sindh from 2013 to 2018, 2018 to 2023 and is also currently a member since 2024.

Previously, he served as Provincial Minister of Sindh for Culture, Tourism and Antiquities, and Archives between August 2016 - May 2018 and from Aug 2018- Aug 2023 tenure as Minister for Education and Literacy Department along the previous portfolio for Culture and Tourism.

Besides being a politician, he has very diversified profile which includes a very well known livestock farmer and also known for his pen work as renowned poet and columnist, and has great insight on contemporary affairs.

Early life and education
He was born on 4 December 1974 in Umerkot District Pakistan.

He has very strong academic background with a degree in Law, he also possesses a degree of B.E Civil engineering and a Master's in Sociology. He has vast exposure of participation in national and international seminars, workshops, and conferences as a key participant and panelist.

Political career
He started his political career while contesting as UC Nazim in local bodies election in 2001-2002 and was elected from his native village UC.

He was elected to the Provincial Assembly of Sindh as a candidate of PPP from Constituency PS-69 (Umerkot-cum-Sanghar) in 2013 Pakistani general election. He received 35,069 votes and defeated Muhammad Jadam Mangrio. On 30 July 2016, he was inducted into the provincial Sindh cabinet of Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and was appointed as Provincial Minister of Sindh for Culture, Tourism and Antiquities. In May 2017, he was given the additional ministerial portfolio of Archives.

He was re-elected to the Provincial Assembly of Sindh as a candidate of PPP from Constituency PS-51 (Umerkot-I) with a marginal victory in 2018 Pakistani general election.

On 19 August 2018, he was inducted into the provincial Sindh cabinet of Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and was appointed as Provincial Minister of Sindh for Education with the additional ministerial portfolio of Culture, Tourism, and Antiquities.

Later, he was succeeded by Saeed Ghani as education minister on 3 February 2020. He was again appointed as Minister of Education on 5 August 2021. During his second tenure he led the biggest ever recruitment campaign of over 55000 combined number of Junior Elementary School Teachers (JEST) and Primary School Teachers (PST) in Pakistan's history and that was done purely on merit through an aptitude qualifying test conducted by highly reputed third party institute IBA Sukkur.

Another key initiative goes to his account is introduction of the Teachers Licensing Policy which has been duly approved by Sindh Cabinet in May 2023, Ministry of Education in Sindh becomes the first province to introduce the Teachers Licensing in Country.

Mr. Shah has won the general election 2024 for 3rd consecutive time from PS-49 Distt. Umerkot with massive margin of over 25,000 votes and became member of Provincial assembly of Sindh and later inducted as provincial minister in Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah's first cabinet sworn in on March 12th 2024 as Minister for Education and Literacy department and with additional portfolio of Mines and Minerals Development Sindh.