Nawaz Sharif, in full Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, (born December 25, 1949, Lahore, Pakistan), Pakistani businessman and politician who served as prime minister in 1990–93, 1997–98, and 2013–17. After earning an LL.B. from the University of the Punjab in Lahore, Sharif joined his family’s influential House of Ittefaq (Ittefaq Group), an industrial conglomerate with interests in sugar, steel, and textiles. Entering politics, he served as a member of a provincial council in Punjab; in 1981 he was appointed finance minister for the province, and, following elections in 1985, he rose to chief minister. As leader of the Pakistan Muslim League (since