Najam Sethi

Who is Najam Sethi?

Najam Sethi Urdu: نجم سیٹھی‎; born c. 1948 is the 16th and former chief minister of Punjab. He is an award winning Pakistani journalist, editor, and media personality, the editor-in-chief of The Friday Times, a Lahore based political weekly, and previously the editor of Daily Times and Daily Aajkal newspapers. He also has a popular current-affairs program on Geo TV called "Aapas ki Baat" and owns Vanguard Books, a publishing house and chain of bookstores.

In 1999, he was arrested by Inter-Services Intelligence following an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation on government corruption, and detained for almost a month without charges. In 2008 and 2009, he was subject to death threats from Islamist groups for his papers' anti-fundamentalist stances.

Sethi won the 1999 International Press Freedom Award of the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists and the 2009 World Association of Newspapers' Golden Pen of Freedom Award.

On March 26, 2013, his name was approved for the interim position of the chief minister of Punjab as a result of consensus between members of the selection committee comprising individuals from both the governing and the opposing political parties. He took the oath on March 27.