Meraj Muhammad Khan, is a notable socialist intellectual and philosopher.
Background
Meraj Muhammad Khan was born on 20 October 1938 in Farrukhabad, Uttar Pradesh, British Indian Empire to an educated family of Pashtun origin. He was the youngest of four sons and his father, Hakeem Molvi Taj Muhammad Khan, was a homoeopath who practised the methods of Greek medicine in Quetta, Balochistan.
Education
After graduating from local high school in 1956, Khan moved to Karachi where he attended DJ Science College and later pursued his higher education at Karachi University in 1957.
Career
He is noted as one of the key philosopher and founding personality of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and as a major contributor to the initial Basic Programme of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). He is originally from Maidan, Tirah from the Zakka Khel subtribe of the Afridis. In his early times, his family moved to Quetta.
He earned a Bachelor in philosophy and humanities in 1960, and an Master of Arts in philosophy in 1962.
He came to public prominence in 1960s while studying at Karachi University. During this time, there was a debating competition in which students from all the colleges of Karachi were participating.
At this competition, some activists of the Communist Party were sitting in the audience, who asked him to join the Communist Party. Khan turned the National Science Foundation into a militant student political organisation that campaigned for the rights of students.
He was among those who founded the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and fully endorsed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto for the PPP"s chairmanship.
Through the PPP, he went into mainstream politics and successfully contested in the 1970 general elections on a PPP platform from the Karachi constituency. Labour ministry (1971–1973)
In December 1971, Khan was appointed Minister for Manpower and directed the Ministry of Labour (MoL) in Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto"s government. In 1972, his tenure saw a major labour strike in Karachi.
Though it was peacefully resolved by Meraj"s intervention.
lieutenant was later reported in newspapers and television that the labour strike was actually a competition between two PPP ministers, Meraj and Law Minister Abdul Hafiz Pirzada for the control of the labour. Meraj"s radical leftist group was in direct competition against Law Minister Pirzada"s Pro-Peking group.
However, Meraj"s denied all accusations on the television As time passee, his differences with Prime Minister Bhutto grew and he left the PPP to reorganise the National Science Foundation. However, Miraj fell into political isolation, never to regain his political credibility and popularity. but he could be cruel."
After leaving the PPP, he became a prominent democratic activist and leftist leader of the Movement for Restoration of Democracy (MRD) opposing the military government of President General Zia-ul-Haq.
He then joined the Mazdoor Kisan Party, which later merged with the Communist Party of Pakistan to form the Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party.
Politics
In addition, he is well known and influential communist figure in the country, and known for his political struggle and advocacy against anti-capitalist convergence and the support of the social democracy. Communism and PPP activism
In 1967, he left the National Science Foundation after secretly learning of a socialist convention being held in Lahore, Punjab. In 1973, Mairaj fell out with the Bhutto government when Bhutto started to compromise on his so-called Socialist agenda and the regime resorted to repressive measures.
Political activism (1980s-present)
In 1998, he joined the center-left/centrist Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) headed by Imran Khan, but resigned from the party in 2003, citing differences with Khan.
Membership
He became an active member of the National Students Federation, eventually becoming National Science Foundation"s president in 1963.