Mian Mahmud Ali Kasuri (1910–1987) was a prominent Pakistani opposition

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

, human rights advocate and lawyer who became a

Senior Advocate Supreme Court An advocate is a professional in the field of law. Different countries' legal systems use the term with somewhat differing meanings. The broad equivalent in many English law–based jurisdictions could be a barrister or a solicitor. However, ...

. He joined the He served in the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

(INC) Party before Pakistan's creation, as well as the

All-India Muslim League The All-India Muslim League (AIML) was a political party established in Dhaka in 1906 when a group of prominent Muslim politicians met the Viceroy of British India, Lord Minto, with the goal of securing Muslim interests on the Indian subcont ...

; and subsequently formed the

Azad Pakistan Party The Azad Pakistan Party was a leftist Pakistani party founded in November 1949 by Mian Iftikharuddin, an ex-Congressite and a member of the Muslim League who worked for the Pakistan Movement. It was formed in 1949, becoming Pakistan's first oppos ...

before becoming one of the founders of the

National Awami Party The National Awami Party (NAP), translated from Urdu to English as National People's Party, was the major left-wing political party in East and West Pakistan. It was founded in 1957 in Dhaka, erstwhile East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh), by A ...

(NAP), briefly serving as the party President.Philip Edward Jones (2003) ''The Pakistan People's Party: Rise To Power'' As a leftist lawyer, he was a recipient of the

Stalin Peace Prize The International Lenin Peace Prize (russian: международная Ленинская премия мира, ''mezhdunarodnaya Leninskaya premiya mira)'' was a Soviet Union award named in honor of Vladimir Lenin. It was awarded by a pane ...

as well as serving on the

Russell Tribunal The Russell Tribunal, also known as the International War Crimes Tribunal, Russell–Sartre Tribunal, or Stockholm Tribunal, was a private People's Tribunal organised in 1966 by Bertrand Russell, British philosopher and Nobel Prize winner, and ...

, created by

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...

for trying American war crimes in Vietnam. He developed a close association with Zulfiqar Bhutto following the latter's imprisonment in 1968; this in addition to his frustration with the NAP led to his quitting the party. In 1970, he joined the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and was elected in a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

on one of the seats won by party founder

Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Zulfikar (or Zulfiqar) Ali Bhutto ( ur, , sd, ذوالفقار علي ڀٽو; 5 January 1928 – 4 April 1979), also known as Quaid-e-Awam ("the People's Leader"), was a Pakistani barrister, politician and statesman who served as the fourth ...

. He played a key role in the formation of Pakistan's first constitution in 1973. He later left the PPP after becoming disillusioned with the increasing brutality with which the government targeted the opposition. He also defended his former comrades in the National Awami Party when they were imprisoned by the PPP government for high treason. After leaving the PPP he joined the opposition

Tehrik-e-Istiqlal Tehreek-e-Istiqlal () was a political party in Pakistan. It was once the second most popular political party in Pakistan. It was formed by Air Marshal Retd. Asghar Khan in 1970. In 1990 Pakistani general election it entered into an alliance with P ...

Asghar Khan Air Marshal Muhammad Asghar Khan (Retd.) ( ur, 17 January 1921 – 5 January 2018), was a Pakistani politician and an autobiographer, later a dissident serving the cause of pacifism, peace, and human rights. Born into a military fam ...

in 1973, remaining associated with that party until his death in 1987. He was educated at Islamia College,

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city ...

See also

References

Further reading