‎Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa (born 24 November 1935) is the Prime Minister of Bahrain

Prime Minister of Bahrain

In Bahrain, the Prime Minister is the head of government of the country. According to the Constitution of Bahrain, the Prime Minister is appointed directly by the King, and needs not be an elected member of the Council of Representatives....

 since 1971, hence is the longest-serving unelected prime minister in the world. He still retains his post, although under the 2002 Constitution he has lost some of his power on paper, with King Hamad having the authority to appoint and (along with the Bahraini parliament) dismiss ministers.

Early life and education

He was born in Doha

Doha

Doha is the capital city of the state of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf, it had a population of 998,651 in 2008, and is also one of the municipalities of Qatar...

, Qatar

Qatar

Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...

, the 2nd son of Sheikh Salman ibn Hamad Al Khalifa, Hakim of Bahrain, and wife Sheikha Mouza. He was educated at Manama High School and Rifa’a Palace School in Bahrain.

Khalifa is the uncle of the reigning King Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifa.

Career

He was Member of the Education Council from 1956 to 1957 and Chair between 1957 and 1960. Next he was subsequently Director of the Finance Department (1960–1966), Director of Finance and President of the Electricity Board (1961), Chair Manama Municipality (1962–1967), Head of the Bahrain Monetary Council (1965), Chair of the Joint Committee for Economic & Financial Studies, Committee for the Register of Commerce, Administry Council (1967–1970), and Bahrain Monetary Agency, President of the State Council (1970–1973), Head of the State Council (1970), Prime Minister since 1971, and Head of the Supreme Defence Council (1978).

Khalifa was appointed as Prime Minister by his brother, Emir

King of Bahrain

The King of Bahrain ‎ is the monarch and head of state of Bahrain. Between 1783 and 1971, the Bahraini monarch held the title of Hakim, and, from 1971 until 2002, the title of Emir...

 Isa ibn Salman Al Khalifa, in 1971.

Marriage and children

Khalifa married at Muharraq

Muharraq

Muharraq , is Bahrain's third largest city, and served as its capital until 1923. The city is located on Muharraq Island and has long been a centre of religiosity...

 with Sheikha Hessa bint Ali Al Khalifa, the fourth daughter of Sheikh Ali bin Hamad Al Khalifa. They had three sons and one daughter:

• HH Sheikh Mohammad bin Khalifa Al Khalifa (died 14 June 1974)
• HH Sheikh Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa - Third Deputy Prime Minister. He married Sheikha Zayn bint Khalid Al Khalifa with whom he has two sons:
  • Sheikh Khalifa bin Ali Al Khalifa
  • Sheikh Isa bin Ali Al Khalifa
• HH Sheikh Salman bin Khalifa Al Khalifa
• HH Sheikha Lulwa bint Khalifa Al Khalifa - Honorary President of the Al Noor Beneficence Society. She married His Excellency Shaikh Rashid bin Khalifa Al Khalifa
  Shaikh Rashid bin Khalifa Al Khalifa
  Shaikh Rashid bin Khalifa Al Khalifa 40 years of painting cover a diverse range of artistic genres. Realism developed to Impressionism, which gradually evolved to Individualism, a notable prelude to his recent work, a dual concept of Abstract and the Colour Field...
  
  , prominent Bahraini artist and patron of the arts (born 1952). They have three sons and three daughters.

Titles and styles

• 24 November 1935 - 20 February 1942: Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa
• 20 February 1942 - 21 October 2009: His Excellency
  Excellency
  Excellency is an honorific style given to certain members of an organization or state.Usually, people styled "Excellency" are heads of state, heads of government, governors, ambassadors, certain ecclesiastics, royalty, aristocracy, and military, and others holding equivalent rank .It is...
  
  Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa
• 21 October 2009 – present: His Royal Highness Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa

On 21 October 2009, King Hamad raised him to the personal title of Prince, with the style of His Royal Highness, for his life-long services.

Honours

• Order of Khalifa, 1st Class (Bahrain
  Bahrain
  ' , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain , is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,214,705, including 235,108 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.Bahrain is...
  
  , 19 December 1979)
• Grand Cordon of the Orders of the Renaissance (Jordan
  Jordan
  Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
  
  , 4 November 1999)
• Grand Cordon of the White Elephant
  White elephant
  A white elephant is an idiom for a valuable but burdensome possession of which its owner cannot dispose and whose cost is out of proportion to its usefulness or worth...
  
   (Thailand
  Thailand
  Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
  
  , 3 December 2003)
• Order of the Two Rivers, 2nd class (Iraq, 3 April 1952)

External links

• Biography H.R.H. the Prime Minister - official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Bahrain
• Bahrainprimeminister.net - website about the Bahrain Prime Minister and his family