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Some of Mairaj Muhammad Khan s politics is so old world that it has a touch of rom
anticism. There are military courts, protests and disobedience; challenges to ma
rtial law and refusal to become party to military rule. There are also lashes, t
orture, betrayal and lengthy prison terms. He is a leader who spent 13 years or
more in the jails of various successive military governments, including his own
PPP government, received severe head injuries and lost one eye in the process
in
another country he would Police confronted Mairaj Muhammad Khan while he was on
his way to Sherbaz Khan Mazari s house for a meeting of the MRD in 1983. PHOTO: M
M KHAN COLLECTION/AYESHA MIR/EXPRESS
Mairaj Muhammad Khan has been an active participant in many of the important eve
nts that shaped our country in its formative years. He was a key player in the m
ovement that led to the formation of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the movem
ent against General Ayub Khan in 1968, which was sparked off by NSF-led students
, as well as the movement for the restoration of democracy (MRD) against General
Ziaul Haq from its formation in 1981 until it culminated in 1988.have the statu
s of a Mandela or a national hero.

He has been through it all; Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan, the dismemberment of Pakistan
, the Bhutto years, General Zia and his dictatorship and the return to democracy
in 2008. He was even associated with Imran Khan s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf for fi
ve years (1997 Dec to 2003 April) and left when his patience was completely exha
usted. More than a politician, he now enjoys the position of an elder statesman.
Much of his wisdom comes from his experiences initially as a student leader and
then as a mainstream politician. It also comes from his grassroots work amongst
the labour classes of Pakistan as well as his socialist ideology.
This was a different Pakistan, then. Of East and West. And of student politics,
where demonstrations on the streets of Karachi, then the capital city, could bri
ng down the government.
There are lessons to be learnt, and incidents that have not been forgotten. Long
gone have been the days when he left his house in PECHS, once the most happenin
g locality for the middle and upper middle classes of Karachi. He now lives a se
date life in a comparatively dull and boring Defence Housing Authority with his
son, who, ironically is a banker. This may not go down well with a socialist - No
t at all, he replies everyone to his own.