Shehla Raza

Prior to her unopposed election Sunday as the deputy speaker of the ninth Sindh Assembly, 42-year-old Shehla Raza was mostly recognized for a tragedy that shocked Karachi. She lost both of her children, 13-year-old Aks-e-Batool and 11-year-old Shayan Ahmed, in a horrific car accident in 2005.
Raza’s political career began with the Peoples Students Federation (PSF) at the University of Karachi in 1986. She became the PSF girls wing joint secretary at KU and worked at KU and other colleges till 1988 when she was elected the joint secretary of the PPP ladies wing Karachi.
After the end of the PPP government, she was arrested on December 27, 1990 on the allegations of a double murder and possession of illegal arms. She was kept at the CIA centre in Karachi for 24 days where she was tortured. Since has been imprisoned for a total of four months and fifteen days in several jails.
Raza married in 1991 and her daughter was born a year later and her son in 1994. After 1997, her husband Ghulam Qadir was transferred to Islamabad and she continued her political work in Wah Cantt and Rawalpindi.
She was back in Karachi in 2000 and by 2005 became the general secretary of the PPP ladies wing Karachi division. The same year, her children died in an accident.
Raza comes from a middle class family and she lives in Gulistan-e-Jauhar.