It was October 8 evening when a beep notified me of a WhatsApp message. It was sent by Muhammad Zaman Khan, better known for his two-word name, Zaman Khan. It contained a link to a weekly newspaper report he had done of an event organised in remembrance of an 1857 folk hero from the Punjab, Rai Ahmad Kharal, by a Lahore-based organisation. The subject of the report being of my interest, I acknowledged receipt of the message.

I wanted to ring him to know more about the organisation, the History Society Lahore, which he said was “shy of publicity” and “aimed purely at a better understanding of history that concerns us”. I would have also asked him if he was also associated with it. But I could not make the call. However, his travel from Faisalabad, his home town, to Lahore to attend the event did indicate that he was. Having been a colleague at the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan for several years, I knew he was not the type of person who would lounge away his retirement. He had lived a life full of struggle and activism until he bid this world adieu in Faisalabad on October 22.

Until his death, Zaman Khan was a senior member of the HRCP governing council. The independent human rights watchdog announced his loss in these words. “A staunch human rights defender since his days as a student leader, Khan was also a trade unionist, political worker and intellectual. His commitment to labour rights led to a long association with the Mazdoor Kissan Party, during which he chronicled the labour movement and many of its leaders with characteristic flair. His political activism led to fines as well as imprisonment during Pakistan’s martial law regimes, although this did not deter him from his commitment to the ideal of a progressive, secular Pakistan free of class prejudice.

“Khan was a founding member of the HRCP and was elected to its first council. Subsequently, he worked at the HRCP for almost two decades, heading its Complaints Cell and helping survivors of human rights violations access legal and protective services.

“As a founding member of the Pakistan-India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy and South Asians for Human Rights, Khan argued consistently for better relations between India and Pakistan. He was also a prolific writer and a journalist, having served as a bureau chief at both The Muslim and The Frontier Post, and written on subjects as varied as the abolition of the death penalty and Punjabi folklore and literature.

Khan’s commitment to his democratic and humanitarian ideals did not remain restricted to him being a rally-regular, carrying placards and raising human rights slogans. He was always on the lookout for an alternative in his intellectual discourses.

Khan had a passion for ancient and contemporary South Asian history and remained involved in politics, fundamental rights and peace movements. Class discrimination, the lack of peace between Pakistan and India, cultural and linguistic rights of his native Punjab continued to haunt him throughout his life.

Zaman Khan was the person you would meet at every rally or public demonstration or seminar that concerned people’s rights. However, Khan’s commitment to his democratic and humanitarian ideals did not remain limited to him being a rally-regular, carrying placards and raising human rights slogans. He was always on the lookout for an alternative in his intellectual discourses. In his pursuit of the construction of alternatives, he interviewed public figures, scholars, intellectuals and artists for newspapers. Reviewing his book, Alternative Vision: Voices of Reason, earlier this year, I had appreciated it as an anthology of these interviews “to present in one bouquet a different vision of a livable society built on major principles of social justice and equity. … He is able to get his interviewees to really open up without being pushy or tricky. A civil, passionate, informative and moving conversation is what readers get here. And the answers he gets have some of the best quotable quotes. See writer Amrita Pritam on her idea of a complete woman: ‘One who is independent economically, emotionally and culturally. Freedom cannot be begged for, nor can it be seized. It cannot be put on either – it rises from the dust of the body.’”

Despite his long campaign for people’s rights, he was an optimist. And here comes the testimony.

In his introduction to the book, human rights activist and journalist IA Rehman, who passed away earlier this year, wrote: “Zaman Khan does not deny the horrible reality faced by the people across the globe but instead of taking refuge in pessimism or stepping aside in a cynic’s robe, he discusses all human concerns with whosoever is accessible to him from within his society or the foreign celebrities he can access.” His commitment to democratic and humanitarian causes showed in the way he would conduct himself. He did grow a Stalinist moustache. However, he was an affable and an easy-to-talk-to person who could disagree with you without being rude.

We’ll miss you, Zaman Khan. And so will the progressive circles across South Asia.

The writer is a print, broadcast and online journalist associated with Jang Group of Newspapers as Editor, Special Assignments