Transitions: Amir Haider Kazmi, PPP leader, passes away

He served as federal minister for health, social welfare and special education from 1988-1990.

KARACHI: Former federal minister and Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) leader, Syed Amir Haider Kazmi,passed away on Thursday after fighting a long battle with ill-health in London.

He leaves behind a widow, two sons and two daughters. The funeral prayers will be offered in London on Friday after which he will be laid to rest in Gardens of Peace Muslim Cemetery on Elmbridge Road, Hainault Ilford IG6, United Kingdom.

He served the government of Pakistan as a federal minister for health, social welfare and special education from 1988-1990. His foray into politics started as a student, after which Kazmi served the PPP as president of the party’s Karachi chapter, then information secretary of the PPP Sindh chapter and later on, vice-president of the PPP’s Sindh chapter.

In his student life, Kazmi served as a member of the executive committee of the National Student Federation (NSF) and the president of the NSF- Kazmi Group.

He spent his life struggling for democracy and was arrested multiple times during martial law regimes and spent many years of his life behind the bars. In 1964, he took active part in the running of Fatima Jinnah’s election campaign and carried Mashel-e-Shama from Karachi to Peshawar.

In 1977, he won the Sindh Assembly election on a PPP ticket from Karachi and, in 1988, he was elected as member of the National assembly from Karachi.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2013.