ANP leader Amin Khattak dies at 57

ANP Sindh secretary Amin Khattak died of heart attack at the age of 57.

KARACHI:

Awami National Party (ANP), Sindh general secretary Amin Khattak died of a heart attack on Sunday. He was 57 years old.

Khattak had been initially admitted for complications induced by diabetes.

The ANP leader was born in Jalozai, Nowshera and came to Karachi where he worked as a transporter, after he completed his matriculation exams.

“He was born to become a great leader and he did,” said friend and student Ziaur Rehman. Khattak was politically influenced by Dr Izaz Nazir, Saleem Raz, Baabu Fazal Khaliq and Fasihuddin Salar among others.

He was a member of the ANP’s executive committee and when Wali Khan was in Hyderabad Jail, Khattak started the Wali Khan Rehayi Committee for his release. He also created the National Democratic Party (NDP) and was its first secretary.

In 1982, he became the president of the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) in Karachi. On August 14, 1983, he was arrested for a year by the military court in Hyderabad and he became the NDP’s provincial information secretary after his release. When the NDP merged with the Mazdoor Kissan Party, the Sindh Awami Tahreek and the Pakistan National Party to create the ANP in 1986, he became its first president and served a two-year term.

Khattak did not marry because he had devoted his life to politics. He has left behind a brother and sister. His funeral prayers were offered in Patel Para and his body will be buried in his hometown.

Published in The Express Tribune, March  7^th, 2011.