Zartaj Gul

Zartaj Gul (Pashto, ) is a Pakistani politician who served as Minister of State for Climate Change, in Imran Khan Government from 5 October 2018 until 10 April 2022 when Imran Khan was ousted by a no-confidence motion against Imran Khan motion. She remained a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan since 29 February 2024, previously having served in the post from November 2002 to till January 2023.

Early life and education
Gul hails from FR Bannu, born in Domel, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to Ahmad Wazir, chief engineer of WAPDA and belongs to Wazir tribe.

She obtained her early education in her native town Bannu and Miramshah before moving to Lahore with her family. She attended Queen Mary College for her undergraduate studies and then National College of Arts for her postgraduate studies. She did Textile Designing from National College of Arts.

After completing her education, she joined Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and became a volunteer with Insaf Student Forum (ISF) in 2005.

She moved to Dera Ismail Khan after getting married in 2010.

Political career
Gul ran for the seat of the National Assembly of Pakistan as a candidate of PTI from Constituency NA-172 (Dera Ghazi Khan-II) in 2013 Pakistani general election. She received 38,643 against 49,142 votes of Hafiz Abdul Kareem and lost the seat.

She was elected to the National Assembly as a candidate of PTI from NA-191 (Dera Ghazi Khan-III) in 2018 Pakistani general election. She received 79,817 votes and defeated Awais Leghari.

On 5 October 2018, she was inducted into the federal cabinet of Prime Minister Imran Khan and was appointed as Minister of State for Climate Change.

Gul's controversial statements
As a minister with an important portfolio, Gul was frequently criticized and ridiculed by the media for her statements which were called bizzare. Some of these included her explanation for why coronavirus was named Covid 19; and attributing, in early 2019, heavy winter rains and snowfall to a sincere government coming to power in Pakistan.

Controversy
In June 2019, Gul was criticized by the media for allegedly using her position to secure appointment of her sister as a director of NACTA. Gul's principal staff officer wrote an official letter to the Secretary Interior, following up on a "telephonic conversation with Ms Zartaj Gul, Minister of State for Climate, regarding the appointment of Ms Shabnam Gul in NACTA". Prime Minister Imran Khan reportedly "took notice of the situation", but took no action against Gul other than requesting her to withdraw her letter; Gul's sister was appointed to the position. NACTA later released a statement "clarifying" that the appointment of Gul's sister was merit-based, even though she had no prior experience in the field.