Career
He was former senior vice President in the Awami National Party and former Federal Railways Minister in Pakistan. Popularly known as Haji Sahab, Bilour obtained his education from Khudad Model School, Islamia School Peshawar, and then Edwards College. Bilour comes from a well-known and wealthy business family.
Bilour participated in the 1965 election campaign of Fatima Jinnah against Ayub Khan, and joined Alliance for Neighborhood Prosperity in the 1970s.
Bilour has participated in all the elections since 1988, except for the 2002 polls. His home constituency is in Peshawar and is notorious for being unpredictable.
Bilour has served time in jails on several occasions during his political career. In 1997, the Bilour"s only son was killed at a polling station during a by-election, after Bilour had a quarrel with PPP leader and former minister Syed Qammar Abbas.
They all denied the charge.
In 2008, after being elected from NA-1, Bilour was appointed federal minister for railways. During his time as Railway minister, Railways of Pakistan saw one of its darkest period where he and his family invested heavily in Road transport like Trucks and buses. Directly affecting Railways and destroying them systematically.
He has faced severe criticism in this regard, as he steered the institution during what many have called its worst ever financial crisis, amidst widespread corruption allegations.
Bilour was also implicated in the corruption scandal. Bilour has been named as an accused in a multi-billion scrap scandal, currently being investigated by the Punjab chapter of National Accountability Bureau (National Association of Broadcasters).
On the orders of the Supreme Court, National Association of Broadcasters initiated investigations into the alleged disposal, in clear violations of prescribed rules, of 39,000 metric tons of Railway scrap valued at more than Rs300 million. In February 2015, being a Lawmaker and «speaking on the floor of the National Assembly.
(Bilor) announced a $200,000 bounty for the (head of the) owner of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo that published blasphemous caricatures (and) $100,000 compensation for the families of those (who) killed (11 people) during the deadly attack on Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris last month.»
He was quoted in The Times as saying, "I also announce that if the Government hands this person over to me, my heart says I will finish him with my own hands and then they can hang me".
His party, the Awami National Party, told the British Broadcasting Corporation that "this was a personal statement, not party policy, but added that innnt would not be taking any action against him." The Pakistani Prime Minister said the Pakistani government rejected the Minister"s statements. His statements were condemned by the United States government.
