He was exceptionally brave. He was committed to progressive democratic polity for Pakistan. He was selfless. He was admired and loved. Mairaj Mohammad Khan deserved all these attributes. With his passing away, the country has lost an enviable political luminary.

Mairaj was born to a distinguished Afridi Pakhtoon family of Qaim Ganj, UP (colonial India) which produced as diverse persons of excellence as academicians and armed forces’ top brass; freedom fighters and defenders of colonial rule; religious and film luminaries; journalists and medical professionals; hardcore nationalist Indians and votaries of partition etc. His family migrated to Pakistan, where his early youth was first tempered in Quetta and then in Karachi’s Baloch habitat, Lyari.

Mairaj identified himself as one who would fight for the cause of wronged and downtrodden. Hakim Taj Mohammad Khan Afridi, his father, who was a leading figure in the Khilafat Movement and his elder brother Minhaj Mohammad Khan Barna, the trade unionist par excellence, were his inspiration.

In Karachi, Mairaj’s talent and skill, demonstrated at debating contests and public gatherings, made him popular as a student leader belonging to the National Students Federation (NSF), along with Syed Abdul Wadood, Sher Afzal Malik, Mahboob Ali, Zainuddin Khan, Fatehyab Ali Khan, Seth Ibrahim, Abdul Hameed Chhapra, Agha Jafar, Zainul Abideen, Johar Husain, Amir Haider Kazmi, Ehtisham, Abdullah, Shamim Zainuddin, to name a few. Most of these stalwarts are no more but their legacy continues, as was evident at Mairaj’s funeral, where quite a few of all age groups, notably youth, were present.

The NSF was formed to counter the Democratic Students Federation (DSF). The SIUT founder Adeebul Hasan Rizvi, psychiatrist Dr Haroon Ahmed, and journalist Saleem Asmi were amongst its leaders. It had merged with All Pakistan Students Organisation (APSO) that was banned. In 1955-56, the NSF leaders, including Messrs Iftikhar and Shamsi, invited some of the younger activists of DSF, including Syed Abdul Wadood and Mahboob Ali, to join it as they felt they would provide the needed leadership to the student community.

It became a popular student body when western powers attacked Egypt on the Suez Canal issue, and the NSF gave a call for protest. Spontaneous crowds of citizens joined the procession, as it was moving towards the prime minister’s house to protest against his statement endorsing the western powers aggression. By now Mairaj had entered the Sindh Muslim College.

When the country’s first general elections were to be held under the 1956 Constitution in 1958-59, General Ayub Khan staged the first coup d’etat that the pliant apex court declared to be a successful ‘revolution’. Ayub regime put a ban on political organisations and identified the NSF also as a political entity.

The dictator’s hangers-on also submitted a report for reforming education, which identified education as a commodity. To avail it in better quality, it was required to pay a higher price. Furthermore, it suggested abolition of two-year graduation course and replacing it with three-year degree course. That was the time when the NSF activists, who were lying low, started their mobilisation campaign for restoration of the two-year degree course.

The move had vast public support in the two wings of the country, as adding one more year to be eligible to apply for some better job was an undue burden.

Persuasive and articulate Mairaj Mohammad Khan became one of the stalwarts of the student movement against the three-year degree course as the NSF activists organised gatherings in baithaks and backyards of its supporters. And when Ayub Khan imposed his tailored constitution and lifted ban from the political parties, the NSF started its campaign for restoration of two-years degree course. Students who were in the second year of the three-years course could be entitled to get their graduation degree if the movement succeeded, so there was much enthusiasm in support of the NSF movement. As the new session started, the students’ union elections were to be held and Mairaj was the candidate for the vice-president office at the S.M. College.

His election campaign added another star in Mairaj’s life. That lucky star is Zubaida Mairaj, the companion in his turbulent career both as a student leader and a leftist political activist. Frail but mentally strong, Zubaida never let his spouse down, as he joined and left political parties, even a cabinet office to stand by his commitment to the democratic fundamental rights of the downtrodden.

Even though Mairaj-led Qaumi Mahaz-e-Azadi and Fatehyab-led Mazdoor Kissan Party did not emerge as major mainstream political parties, they contributed in all the movements against the usurpers and for the restoration of democracy in the country.

It will be of interest to students of Pakistan’s political development to know that the challenges posed by military dictators to the country’s polity were invariably countered by the leftists, adopting different strategies and tactics. The movement against Ayub’s misrule was initiated in 1961, when they got the entry point by organising students’ protest march against the anti-Muslim riots in the Indian city Jabalpur and assassination of Congolese patriot Patrice Lumumba.

Mairaj was amongst the student leaders who were tried by a military court at Karachi. His ageing father who attended the court proceedings used to hammer his danda in appreciation when Mairaj would make an aggressive retort to queries of the military officer presiding over the ‘court’. (A little digression here. I think it was also during this trial where Fatehyab was also one of the leading accused that Masuma Hasan developed romantic feelings for him). Both Fatehyab and Mairaj were amongst those students who were sentenced for hard labour by the military court and dispatched to the prisons in Punjab, notorious for their merciless treatment of prisoners.

No sooner were the sentenced leaders released that their externment orders were issued from Karachi. The Ayub regime was scared of their presence in the city.

The hard labour and externment did not deter Mairaj and his fellow NSF student leaders and activists from continuing the movement for restoration of two-year graduation degree. Both Fatehyab and Mairaj, who were elected to the top students’ union office, were also elected as president and vice president of the Inter-Collegiate Body (ICB). As the movement against three-year degree course grew from strength to strength, both the ICB leaders along with 10 other colleagues, mostly from NSF, were externed from Karachi. Wherever they reached, the local students welcomed and joined them till the movement reached every nook and corner of the country.

Their triumphant return to Karachi was preceded with the restoration of two-year graduation. It was celebrated in both the wings of the country. Most of the externed dozens remained steadfast in their commitment to the social democratic cause. Mairaj while making his last journey could say:

Iss ishq na us ishq pe nadiim hai magar dil;
har daagh hay es dil mein bajuz daagh-e- nidamat -- Faiz

His lifelong struggle for the basic political and economic rights of the common citizens will remain a welcome reminder for all those who want to see Pakistan emerge as a social participatory democracy where all the services and institutions will abide by the constitution and submit to the rule of law.