NOWSHERA: Known religious scholar, a central leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and former member of provincial assembly Maulana Mujahid al-Hussaini passed away Friday after a protracted illness. He was 94. The funeral prayer was offered at the Cricket Ground. Prominent religious scholars, politicians and former members of the assemblies, central leaders of JUI-F and people from other walks of life attended the funeral prayer. He was laid to rest at his ancestral graveyard in Nowshera Kalan. Maulana Mujahid Khan al-Hussaini was born in Methakhel in Nowshera Kalan on December 8, 1920. He received early education in Shehlakhel in Nowshera Kalan and took admission in Darul Uloom Deoband, India in 1938 where he completed his religious education in 1946. He received religious education from known religious scholar Maulana Hussain Ahmad Madani for two years.On the advice of Maulana Hussain Ahmad Madani, he visited Myanmar (the erstwhile Burma) and participated in the 1947 movement for protection of the rights of minorities there. He met the then ruler of Myanmar and asked him to give representation to the minorities in the parliament. It was his struggle that the Myanmar government allocated two seats for Muslim minority in the parliament and he was elected as member of parliament against a reserved seat.After independence, he shifted to his native district. He joined the JUI-F and was considered among the close friends of Maulana Mufti Mehmood, the father of JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman.He also served as Khateeb at the AC Army Centre, Nowshera and was later appointed as Islamiat teacher in Islamia High School, Nowshera. The late scholar was also Khateeb at the Adamjee Paper and Board Mills Limited in Nowshera. In 2002, Maulana Mujahid contested for the provincial assembly seat of the then NWFP (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) from the platform of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) and was elected as member provincial assembly. He was the
only MPA who would take the public transport for two years to attend the sessions of the provincial assembly.Despite his close association with the then chief minister Akram Khan Durrani, he didn’t take any favours.Maulana Mujahid preferred to keep a low profile. He served as MPA for five years but could not own a house.
