An agriculturalist by training, Raja Riaz Ahmed was born on July 26, 1961 in Faisalabad. After graduating from Government College, Faisalabad, he made his foray into politics. His legislative career however took off in the 1990s and he was first elected as a member of Punjab Assembly in 1993. He remained in the provincial assembly until 1996 when the then president Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari dissolved all houses.

He also served as MPA from 2002 to 2007 and was again elected to the Punjab Assembly for a third term in the 2008 general election. In both the 2002 and 2008 elections, Raja won from PP-65 (Faisalabad - XV).

His position in Pakistan Peoples Party became crucial and after his 2008 win he served as parliamentary leader of PPP in Punjab. He was appointed opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly after PPP moved to the opposition benches in the house in 2011.

Raja has been PPP’s frontman in Punjab during the 2008-2013 term of the provincial assembly and has engaged in spats with members of Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz. He has been critical of the Sharif brothers on numerous occasions, among them the Supreme Court’s 2012 ruling on the Asghar Khan petition which established that the 1990 election was rigged. The same year, he allegedly said in a statement that Shahbaz Sharif, who was chief minister of Punjab at the time, held dual nationality. With Shahbaz summoned to the apex court on the matter, Raja issued a denial saying his statement had been “misinterpreted”. Since taking on the opposition mantle in Punjab, he routinely accused accused the Sharif brothers of attempting to derail the democratic process.

A statement of assets and liabilities for 2010 submitted by the then members of the provincial assembly shows Raja had at the time assets worth Rs44.31m, including three shops, a four-kanal plot and a piece of farmland. He also owns a factory worth Rs46m.

— Research and text by Saher Baloch