LAHORE, July 15: A former speaker of the Punjab Assembly and Pakistan Peoples Party’s senior leader Rafiq Ahmad Sheikh, who passed away last night at the age of 85, was laid to rest at the Miani Sahib graveyard on Sunday in the presence of a large number of mourners.

The qul ceremony will be held between 5 and 6.30pm at his Shadman residence, near the Iranian Consulate, on Monday (today). He is survived by a daughter and son Attiq Ahmad who is physically handicapped and mentally instable. His second son, Tauseeq Ahmad, was killed at the age of 33 resisting a robbery bid.

Foreign minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri visited his residence to condole his death. PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto sent a message to his family expressing shock over the death of the party stalwart.

Born in Rawalpindi on Dec 2, 1922, Rafiq Ahmad Sheikh came back to his ancestral city Lahore at a young age and started living in Farooq Ganj, inside Misri Shah. His father Sheikh Mohmmad Yaqoob was in the railway service.

Rafiq Sheikh was admitted to the Islami High School, Sheranwala Gate, from where he did his matriculation. He did his graduation from the Islamia College and then the LLB from the Punjab University Law College. He was still studying law when he was married in 1946.

Inspired by his father, Rafiq Sheikh started taking interest in politics. His first love was the Punjab Muslim Students Federation. He became its secretary-general at a time when Punjab’s boundaries extended between Peshawar and Delhi. His presence in the MSF gave him several opportunities of meeting Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. He took an active part in the 1946 election campaign.

When Pakistan came into being, Raiq Sheikh started legal practice seriously and joined the law chamber of jurist par excellence and champion of civil liberties Mian Mahmood Ali Kasuri. Mian Sahib became his political mentor and ideological ‘guru’ and Sheikh Sahib soon started taking interest in the left wing politics. When Mian Iftikharuddin and others founded the Azad Pakistan Party (APP) and Mian Kasuri also joined it, Rafiq Sheikh made his way to the first opposition party of the country.

During his stay in the APP, Sheikh had a chance to work with trade unions and peasant organizations and his best friendship at that time was with veteran trade union leader Mirza Mohammad Ibrahim. He also became close to poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz and his circle of literary persons. It was at that time that he joined the Communist Party of Pakistan.

His third political party was the National Awami Party which was founded by leaders after the APP was no more after the death of Mian Iftikharuddin. During the stay in that party he happened to become close to Bacha Khan and was inspired by his philosophy of non-violence. However, certain differences with the NAP made him leave the party.

Sheikh confined himself to working with trade unions for a few years before joining the Pakistan People’s Party in 1969. Before that he took active part in the NAP, then a part of opposition alliance, to support Ms Fatima Jinnah in her run for the presidency against Gen Ayub Khan.—- Mahmood Zaman