Ali Nawaz Awan: Biography, Political Career, Islamabad Seat and Party Changes (2026)
Ali Nawaz Awan won Imran Khan's vacated Islamabad seat in 2018 and became the Prime Minister's special assistant on the capital's development authority. He left the PTI in November 2023. Here is what is known about him, and how Islamabad is governed.
About this article: It was prepared with the help of AI tools from public sources and is being reviewed by our editors. If you spot an error, please let us know so that we can correct it.
⚡ The short answer
Malik Ali Nawaz Awan is a politician from Islamabad. He rose through the PTI’s local organisation in the capital and led the opposition in the city’s first elected corporation. In October 2018 he won the National Assembly seat that Imran Khan had vacated in Islamabad. A month later he was made Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on the Capital Development Authority. He was arrested in November 2023 and, days later, left the PTI for the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party. He holds no seat today.
- ✅ Opposition leader in the Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation before 2018
- ✅ Member of the National Assembly for NA-53 Islamabad-II, October 2018 to January 2023
- ✅ Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on CDA affairs from 7 November 2018
- ✅ Joined the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party in November 2023
Who is Ali Nawaz Awan?
Here is the main point. Ali Nawaz Awan is a local politician who was lifted onto the national stage by one event: Imran Khan giving up a seat.
In the 2018 election Imran Khan won in five constituencies across the country. The law lets a person keep only one. He kept his home seat in Mianwali and gave up the others, including one in Islamabad. The party needed a candidate for the by-election who knew the capital street by street. It chose Ali Nawaz Awan, and he won.
For the next three and a half years he was the Prime Minister’s man for the capital’s affairs. Then his party fell from power, and in 2023 he changed sides.
We should be honest about one thing at the start. Very little about his personal life is on the reliable record. We do not know his date of birth or where he studied, and we will not guess. What we can do is explain his career and the unusual city he comes from.
Ali Nawaz Awan’s story is really the story of Islamabad’s politics: a capital with three seats, no province of its own and a development authority more powerful than its mayor.
Islamabad: a city like no other
To understand his career you first need to understand how odd Islamabad is.
- It is not in any province. It is the Islamabad Capital Territory, run directly by the federal government.
- It has no provincial assembly and no chief minister.
- Its day-to-day administration is headed by a Chief Commissioner, a civil servant appointed by the federal government.
- Its land, roads, sectors and building rules are in the hands of the Capital Development Authority, the CDA, set up in 1960 to build the new capital.
- It sends three members to the National Assembly and has four seats in the Senate.
So the people of Islamabad vote for the National Assembly like everyone else. But they have no provincial government to complain to. If a road is broken or a housing scheme is stuck, the body responsible is usually the CDA, and the CDA answers to the federal cabinet.
| A city in a province, such as Lahore | Islamabad | |
|---|---|---|
| Provincial government | Yes | None |
| Who controls the police | The province | The federal Interior Ministry |
| Who plans the city | A provincial development authority and local councils | The Capital Development Authority |
| Local elected body | Municipal bodies under provincial law | The Metropolitan Corporation, under a federal law |
| Who do residents lobby | Provincial ministers | Their three members of the National Assembly, and federal ministers |
This explains why the capital’s three seats matter more than their number suggests. An Islamabad member is, in effect, a councillor, a provincial legislator and a national legislator rolled into one.
Why does the capital have no province?
When Pakistan decided in the late 1950s to build a new capital, it chose a site beside Rawalpindi and carved it out of Punjab. The idea was that the seat of the federal government should not sit inside any one province. Many federations do the same. Washington in the United States and Canberra in Australia are in federal districts of their own.
The result is that Parliament itself makes the laws that a provincial assembly would make elsewhere. The capital also has its own High Court.
Who looks after what in Islamabad?
| Problem | Who is responsible |
|---|---|
| Plots, building plans, sector roads | The Capital Development Authority |
| Sanitation and local services | The Metropolitan Corporation, with the CDA |
| Police and public order | The Islamabad police, under the federal Interior Ministry |
| Land records and local administration | The Chief Commissioner’s office |
| Electricity | The federal power distribution company for the region |
| Court cases | The district courts and the Islamabad High Court |
If you live in the capital, this table is worth remembering. Half the frustration of dealing with government there comes from knocking on the wrong door.
Local politics: the Metropolitan Corporation
For most of its history Islamabad had no elected local government at all. That changed in 2015, when the capital held its first local elections under a new law. An elected Metropolitan Corporation came into being, with a mayor.
The PML-N, which then governed the country, won control of it. The PTI was the main opposition. Ali Nawaz Awan became the leader of the opposition in the corporation.
That job made his name in the city. As opposition leader he criticised the mayor and the CDA over the capital’s services. Much of his attention went to the rural areas around the planned sectors. Those areas, with their old villages and fast-growing housing schemes, are where most of the capital’s votes lie.
💡 Tip: two Islamabads
Visitors know the leafy sectors with letters and numbers, like F-7 and G-9. But most of the capital’s voters live outside them, in villages, informal settlements and private housing societies on the edges. Elections in Islamabad are usually decided there, by clans and local networks, not in the famous sectors.
The 2018 by-election
In the general election of July 2018 the PTI won all three of the capital’s seats. One of them, NA-53 Islamabad-II, was won by Imran Khan himself.
He had also won seats elsewhere. The Constitution does not allow a person to hold more than one seat, so he had to give up all but one. When a seat is given up in this way, a by-election must be held, normally within sixty days.
The by-election in NA-53 took place on 14 October 2018. The PTI’s candidate was Ali Nawaz Awan. He won, and he took his seat in the National Assembly at the end of that month.
How does a by-election work?
- A seat falls vacant. This happens when a member dies, resigns, is disqualified or gives up an extra seat.
- The Election Commission announces a schedule.
- Only the voters of that one constituency vote.
- The winner serves for the rest of the assembly’s term, not a fresh five years.
By-elections held soon after a general election usually go to the party that has just formed the government. Voters want their member to have the ear of those in power. That worked in his favour in 2018.
Special Assistant on CDA affairs
On 7 November 2018, less than a month after his election, Prime Minister Imran Khan appointed him Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Capital Development Authority affairs.
What did that mean?
A special assistant is a helper named by the Prime Minister. He is not a minister and does not run a ministry. He looks after a subject the Prime Minister cares about and reports back.
In his case the subject was the capital itself. The CDA formally comes under the Interior Ministry. But Imran Khan wanted someone who would chase the authority on his behalf. Ali Nawaz Awan became the political face of the government’s plans for the city.
Those plans included:
- A review of Islamabad’s master plan, the 1960 document that lays out where the city may grow.
- Action against illegal construction and land grabbing.
- New roads and interchanges on the busy routes to Rawalpindi and the motorway.
- Housing schemes for people on low incomes.
How much of this was delivered is disputed. His supporters point to roads that were built and encroachments that were removed. His critics say the master plan review dragged on, that demolitions hit the poor harder than the powerful, and that the city’s water and waste problems were no better at the end than at the start.
| Federal Minister | Special Assistant | Member of the National Assembly | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How chosen | Appointed from Parliament | Appointed by the Prime Minister at his discretion | Elected by voters |
| Runs a department? | Yes | No | No |
| His case | Not held | From November 2018 | From October 2018 |
| Lost when? | When the government falls | When the Prime Minister leaves | When the assembly ends or the member resigns |
After the government fell
In April 2022 Imran Khan was removed by a vote of no confidence. The special assistant’s post ended with the government. The PTI’s members resigned from the National Assembly; his membership formally ended in January 2023.
In the months that followed he was active in the party’s protests in the capital. He was named in several cases arising from the PTI’s marches on Islamabad.
The arrest in Mansehra
After the unrest of 9 May 2023, the PTI’s leaders across the country were arrested or went out of sight. Ali Nawaz Awan kept a low profile for some months.
On 9 November 2023, the PTI said he had been taken away in Battal, a town in the Mansehra district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Dawn reported that a team from law-enforcement agencies and the Islamabad police had arrested him there, along with another senior PTI figure, Malik Aamir Dogar, and the two men who had been sheltering them. The party called the arrests illegal.
A new party within days
What happened next followed a pattern seen many times that year.
About ten days later, on 19 November 2023, he appeared in Lahore beside Jahangir Tareen and Aleem Khan, the leaders of the newly formed Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party. He announced that he was leaving the PTI and joining them.
Press reports described him as having “resurfaced”.
⚠️ How to read this sequence
A man is arrested. A few days later he appears at a press conference and joins a rival party. PTI supporters say such switches were forced. Those who made them usually say they acted freely, out of disagreement with the events of 9 May. An outsider cannot see into anyone’s mind. This profile gives the dates and leaves the judgment to the reader.
Court outcomes
- In February 2024 a court acquitted him and another former Islamabad member in cases about the PTI’s 2022 “Azadi March” on the capital.
- A separate report says an anti-terrorism court granted him bail in a vandalism case.
No report read for this profile shows a conviction.
What is the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party?
The party he joined deserves a short explanation.
- It was launched in June 2023 by Jahangir Tareen, a wealthy businessman who had once been Imran Khan’s closest political ally, together with Aleem Khan, a property developer and former PTI minister.
- Its name means the Stability of Pakistan Party.
- Its members were mostly former PTI politicians who left after 9 May 2023.
- In the 2024 election it won very few seats and mainly served as a junior partner of the PML-N.
For the people who joined it, the party offered a new home. For voters, it never really became a choice of its own.
The 2024 election and after
In the general election of 8 February 2024 the capital’s seats changed hands.
| Seat | 2018 winner | 2024 winner |
|---|---|---|
| Islamabad’s first seat | Raja Khurram Nawaz (PTI) | Anjum Aqeel Khan (PML-N) |
| Islamabad’s second seat, his old constituency | Imran Khan, then Ali Nawaz Awan in the by-election (PTI) | Tariq Fazal Chaudhry (PML-N) |
| Islamabad’s third seat | Asad Umar (PTI) | Raja Khurram Nawaz |
The PTI rejected the Islamabad results and challenged them before election tribunals. The winners deny any wrongdoing.
We could not confirm whether Ali Nawaz Awan was a candidate in 2024. His name does not appear among the winners.
His Wikipedia entry now lists a further move, from the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party to the PML-Q in 2025. We could not find a news report that confirms it, so we mention it only as something to be checked.
✅ Key point
His career shows how much a local politician’s fortune depends on the national tide. In 2018 the PTI’s wave carried him into Parliament and a Prime Minister’s office. When the wave went out, the same local base was not enough to keep him there.
What supporters and critics say
Supporters in Islamabad’s rural belt describe a local man who was always available, who knew the city’s problems from his years in the corporation and who pushed the CDA harder than outsiders ever had.
Critics see it differently. Opponents from the PML-N say the PTI’s years in charge of the capital produced announcements and little else. PTI loyalists have their own complaint: that he left the party within days of his arrest.
There is not enough on the record to settle these arguments. What can be said is that he was a significant figure in the capital’s politics for about eight years, and that he has been out of the news since.
Words used in his story
| Term | Plain meaning |
|---|---|
| Capital Territory | The federal area around Islamabad, which belongs to no province |
| CDA | The Capital Development Authority, which plans and builds the city |
| Master plan | The official map of how a city is allowed to grow |
| Metropolitan Corporation | Islamabad’s elected local council, headed by a mayor |
| By-election | A vote to fill a single seat that has fallen vacant |
| Special Assistant | A helper appointed by the Prime Minister for a particular subject |
| Encroachment | Building on land without the right to do so |
Timeline: Ali Nawaz Awan at a glance
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 2015 | Islamabad holds its first local government elections |
| 2016 onwards | Serves as leader of the opposition in the Metropolitan Corporation |
| July 2018 | The PTI wins all three Islamabad seats; Imran Khan later gives up NA-53 |
| 14 October 2018 | Wins the NA-53 by-election |
| 7 November 2018 | Appointed Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on CDA affairs |
| April 2022 | The government falls; his post ends |
| January 2023 | His membership of the National Assembly ends |
| 9 November 2023 | Arrested in Battal, Mansehra |
| 19 November 2023 | Leaves the PTI and joins the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party |
| February 2024 | Acquitted in the Azadi March cases |
Why his story matters
- It explains Islamabad. Few citizens know that the capital has no provincial government and that an appointed authority runs most of it.
- It shows how by-elections make careers. One vacated seat turned a local councillor into a national figure.
- It is one more example of 2023. The path from arrest to a new party was walked by dozens of politicians that year.
To see how National Assembly seats are filled and what happens when one falls vacant, read our explainer on the National Assembly of Pakistan.
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Frequently asked questions
❓ Who is Ali Nawaz Awan?
He is a politician from Islamabad who was a PTI member of the National Assembly from October 2018 to January 2023 and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Capital Development Authority affairs.
❓ Which seat did Ali Nawaz Awan win?
NA-53 Islamabad-II. He won it in a by-election on 14 October 2018 after Imran Khan gave up the seat.
❓ Is Ali Nawaz Awan still in the PTI?
No. He announced on 19 November 2023 that he was leaving the PTI and joining the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party.
❓ Was Ali Nawaz Awan arrested?
Yes. He was arrested in Battal, in the Mansehra district, on 9 November 2023, according to press reports. He was acquitted in the Azadi March cases in February 2024.
❓ What was Ali Nawaz Awan’s role in Imran Khan’s government?
He was Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Capital Development Authority affairs from 7 November 2018, dealing with the development of Islamabad.
❓ How old is Ali Nawaz Awan?
His date of birth is not confirmed by any reliable source we could find, so we do not state his age.
❓ Is Ali Nawaz Awan a member of the National Assembly now?
No. The National Assembly’s list of sitting members does not include him.
❓ Which party is Ali Nawaz Awan in today?
He joined the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party in November 2023. His Wikipedia entry lists a later move to the PML-Q, but we could not confirm that from a news report.
Sources
- National Assembly of Pakistan, list of members — the capital’s three sitting members, read on 8 October 2026.
- Wikipedia, “Ali Nawaz Awan” — short biography as last edited on 2 October 2026.
- Wikipedia, “NA-47 Islamabad-II” — the constituency and its 2024 winner.
- Dawn, report on the arrest of Ali Nawaz Awan and Aamir Dogar — November 2023.
- Daily Pakistan, “PTI leaders Ali Nawaz, Amir Dogar arrested as crackdown on party leaders continues” — 9 November 2023.
- Geo News, “PTI leader Ali Nawaz Awan resurfaces, joins Tareen-led IPP” — November 2023.
- Neo News, “Ali Nawaz Awan quits PTI, joins IPP” — 20 November 2023.
- The News, “In another blow to PTI, Ali Nawaz Awan joins IPP” — November 2023.
- ARY News, “Ali Nawaz Awan, others acquitted in Azadi March cases” — February 2024.
- Constitution of Pakistan, as amended up to the Twenty-seventh Amendment — Articles 51, 59, 223 and 224 on the capital’s seats, double membership and by-elections.
