Born in 1943, Iqbal took his primary education in
Quetta, after which he joined the
Forman Christian College in
Lahore. He held an
LL.B. from
Punjab University Law College, and he was the secretary general of the students' union of the university. In 1969, Iqbal joined the provincial revenue department as a
tehsildar. In 1975, after meeting with
president Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, he resigned and joined the
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). In 1988 Iqbal was elected to the
National Assembly of Pakistan, and served as Minister of Food, Agriculture and Cooperatives under
Benazir Bhutto, on her first term. He lost the elections in 1990, but was re-elected again in 1993 and served as Minister of Sports, Culture and Tourism, on Bhutto's second term, that ended in 1996. He also served as chairman of the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Defence. Between 1997 and 2001 he was the President of PPP. Punjab. In 2002 Iqbal was elected to the National Assembly again and joined the group PPP-Patriots. He was inducted to the
Federal Cabinet and served as
Defence Minister during this time, he was also honoured as Deputy Prime Minister between 2002 and 2007 under Prime Ministers
Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali,
Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and
Shaukat Aziz. ==Personal life==