Key rights defender and PPP leader Lateef Mughal passes away at 58

Colleagues heartbroken over death of ‘towering political worker’ and trade union leader

A firm worker of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), a committed trade union leader and an involved civil society activist, Lateef Mughal passed away at the age of 58 on Monday after a prolonged illness.

Mughal had been associated with the PPP since youth. At the time of his death, he was member of the party’s Sindh media cell at the Bilawal House. The PPP’s then chairperson, Benazir Bhutto, had appointed him member of the party’s Karachi executive committee in 1987 and he served in this capacity until 1995.

He served as political secretary with the PPP’s then provincial president, Qaim Ali Shah, from 1987 to 1994. He contested the local government elections for the general councillor’s seat from Pak Colony in 1987 and defeated the then Mohajir Qaumi Movement’s candidate.

From 2008 to 2010 he served as information secretary for the PPP’s Karachi chapter. After that he served as the party’s Karachi spokesman until Sindh Assembly Deputy Speaker Shehla Raza’s appointment as PPP Karachi information secretary in November.

Because of his active participation in the movement against the dictatorship of Gen Ziaul Haq, he was arrested in fake murder cases twice, once in 1979 and then again in 1987. He was quite active in the struggle against Pervez Musharraf’s dictatorial regime from the platform of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy, comprising the PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.

During Benazir’s eight-year self-exile when Musharraf was in power, Mughal, along with Taj Haider, Habibuddin Junaidi, Shaikh Majeed, Manzoor Badayuni and other committed PPP workers, ran the Peoples Secretariat in Karachi and organised party activities, according to a journalist who reports on the PPP. “Most of the people now at the forefront of the party were nowhere to be seen during that time.”

Mughal kept safe the emails exchanged between him and the then PPP chairperson concerning the party’s affairs during her self-exile, said his close aides. Researcher and author Aslam Khwaja said Mughal was a dedicated political worker who came from working-class background and always stood for the people’s rights – political, labour or peace. “He was a towering political worker in this time of depoliticised society. He will be missed in the fight against intolerance.”

PPP chief grieves death

Mughal’s loss reverberated throughout the PPP, with the party chief expressing his sorrow and paying him glowing tributes for his services for the party and its struggle for the restoration of democracy.

In a statement issued by the party, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said Mughal’s death was not only a great loss to the party but to the civil society as well because he worked closely with three generations of the PPP leadership with commitment and loyalty.

Bilawal eulogised Mughal’s life-long affiliation with the PPP as he underwent imprisonment and torture but stood steadfastly with the party and its struggle for restoring and strengthening democracy.

The PPP chief said Mughal would never be forgotten by the party leadership and workers for decades, adding that the vacuum created by his untimely death could hardly be filled. Senator Sherry Rehman, the party’s central leader, expressed her grief on the microblogging website Twitter in the following words: “Shocked and heartbroken to hear of Lateef Mughal’s passing! Can’t imagine Karachi PPP without this diehard jiyala.”

Trade union and activism

Mughal continuously participated in trade union activities since 1987. He was the general secretary of the Peoples Workers Union of the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC), recently renamed as K-Electric after its privatisation.

Along with other trade union associations, he was at the forefront in the movement against the then KESC’s privatisation. He was vice-president of the Peoples Labour Federation Pakistan, chief patron of the Peoples Workers Ittehad Union of the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation and member of the Sindh government’s Labour Task Force.

He was a very active participant in civil society and rights forums involved in causes of labourers, women, human rights, non-Muslims and other marginalised communities. “We have lost a key rights defender,” said Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Vice-Chairman Asad Iqbal Butt. “Mughal was a man who was working for [the people’s] rights in the country.”

In a statement issued by the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education & Research (Piler), its management and staff expressed sorrow over Mughal’s death. Piler Executive Director Karamat Ali and others paid rich tributes to Mughal, who was central leader of the Peoples Labour Bureau and an active member of the Sindh Labour Solidarity Committee.