Karim Pakradouni
| Karim Pakradouni | |
|---|---|
| Born |
18 August 1944 Beirut |
| Nationality | Lebanese |
| Alma mater | Saint Joseph University |
| Occupation | Politician and attorney |
| Years active | 1968–present |
| Spouse(s) | Mona al Nashif |
Karim Pakradouni (Arabic: كريم بقرادوني Armenian: Քերիմ Բագրատունի) (born 18 August 1944) is a Lebanese attorney and politician of Armenian origin. He was influential in Kataeb Party heading it for some period. He was also influential in the Lebanese Forces in various critical phases of the LF. He was also minister of state in a Rafic Hariri government in 2004.
Pakradouni was born in the Armenian district of Beirut, Bourj Hammoud, on 18 August 1944 to an Armenian Orthodox father and Maronite Catholic mother, Lour Shallita from Qartaba. His father, Minas Pakradounian, left Armenia in 1920 and settled in Aleppo, Syria. Several years later, he moved to Lebanon. After moving to Lebanon from Syria, he married Shallita., He has no familial ties to the traditional political elite in Lebanon.
Pakradouni received his secondary education at Collège Notre Dame de Jamhour in the suburbs east of Beirut in the Baabda district. He became politically active as a teenager, joining the Christian nationalist Kataeb Party (Phalange party) in 1959. He continued his education at the Lebanese French Saint Joseph University (Université de St. Joseph / USJ), studying law, history and political science, and graduated in 1968.
Pakradouni has been a leading figure in the Kataeb Party since 1968 when he was elected president of the party's student organization. Salem Abdelnour who was his spouse's uncle provided him with the financial security to forgo a career and concentrate on his political aspirations. True to his Arabist tendencies, he developed close ties with the PLO and famously led a Kataeb student delegation to Jordan to meet with Yasser Arafat in 1969.
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