HYDERABAD: A former mayor of Hyderabad, Aftab Ahmed Shaikh, died in Karachi on Saturday. He was 81.

He was seriously injured in a road accident outside his house in Latifabad Unit-2 on Aug 15. He was taken to a private hospital and then shifted to a Karachi hospital where he breathed his last on Saturday.

His Namaz-i-Janaza was offered outside his residence before he was laid to rest in the Latifabad Unit-8 graveyard. Shaikh has left a wife, three sons and a daughter.

Born in the Indian state of UP on Dec 17, 1939, Shaikh was one of the best lawyers in Hyderabad. He had resumed his political career as an activist of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in Hyderabad after a long pause since he remained a member of the basic democracy institution in General Ayub Khan’s era.

He was elected to the Sindh Assembly from PS-44 on a PPP ticket in 1977.

He got his early education in Hyderabad and did his LLB in 1960 from the Sindh University.

After joining the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in 1986, Aftab Shaikh became its deputy convener. He was also appointed the party’s legal adviser and then awarded a party ticket for the December 1987 local government elections.

Shaikh had also served as the president of the Hyderabad District Bar association.

Aftab Shaikh then became mayor of Hyderabad. He was the third mayor of the city after Wasi Mazhar Nadvi and Ahad Yusuf. Then he was elected an MNA from NA-168.

He served the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation until Oct 5,1992. As mayor, he also survived an attempt on his life on July 17, 1988 near his Latifabad Unit-2 residence. The MQM got Aftab Shaikh elected a senator in March 1994 and he completed his term in 2000. He also served as an adviser to Sindh chief minister on home in the October 2002 election.

Shaikh had faced the biggest political upset of his life when he was defeated in the 2002 election for NA-220 (now NA-227) seat with a thin margin.

Shaikh served as the principal of the Jinnah Law College for a long time.

He had not been active in politics for long. His wife, Ayesha Munawwar, was elected to the Sindh Assembly on a reserved seat twice on MQM ticket.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2020