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| July 9, 2003 | Wednesday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 8,1424 |
Tribute paid to Meraj Khalid
ISLAMABAD, July 8: In a milieu where politicians are often branded corrupt and inept, it looks incongruous that one of them, who passed away less than a month ago, should become the centre of veneration.
This happened here at the International Islamic University (IIU) where a reference was organized on Tuesday in memory of Meraj Khalid, the former caretaker prime minister and also the IIU Rector.
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, who was the chief guest, said the late leader was an uncommon politician, whose chief purpose in life was to bring joy to the under-privileged strata of the society by giving them a choice of being educated.
He said he differed with Meraj Khalid on political matters but also learnt a number of lessons from him, including the need for sidestepping hurdles and making detour to reach cherished goals, as well as the value of education for poor masses.
Sheikh Rashid said he chose to follow the example of Meraj Khalid, who did enormous uplift work in village Burki, where he was born to an illiterate milkman parents and vowed to open schools and colleges in 25 Rawalpindi villages and had concentrated on educating girls since, in his view, only the educated women could raise a glorious nation, and Pakistan must rise to this position in the future.
The minister said shortly before Meraj’s death, he was working with him to open book banks in remote urban areas. “We both knew that school bags had become so big and heavy that common people could afford them no more, and hence we felt that parents living in villages must be provided this facility to lighten their economic burden.”
The minister announced that the PTV would soon present a feature programme based on Meraj Khalid’s life. “No one has been able to solve the problems of the poor but Meraj Khalid showed both the will and the way to achieve this goal and that we should celebrate his life and take his mission forward.”
The IIU chief, Justice Khalilur Rahman, in his message sent to the reference meeting, described Meraj Khalid’s stature an imprint on national history.
The IIU president, Dr Mahmud Ahmad Ghazi, said Meraj Khalid dedicated the entire 90 days share (the duration of his post as the caretaker prime minister) of Rs10 million discretionary grant to the university. He said as Rector he undertook many expansion programmes, for which this university would remain beholden to him.
A number of scholars and students were profiting from the funds given to the institution, said Mr Ghazi. At this point, he narrated an anecdote that he came to know from a friend of Meraj Khalid. Unbeknown to him Meraj Khalid had subsidized this friend’s graduate education by selling milk.
The former vice-chancellor of Allama Iqbal Open University and IIU vice-president, Anwar Hussain Siddiqui, gave a resume of Meraj Khalid’s interest in the expansion of the university.
The director of Dawah Academy, Mushtaq Ali, spoke about Meraj Khalid’s love for Allama Iqbal’s poetical works that he said were etched on the walls of the educational institutions Meraj Sahib had created in his home village at Burki.
The former general secretary of IIU Employee Welfare Association, Saeed Ahmad, and Dr Khalid Rashid, a teacher, described in detail facilities of education which Meraj Sahib had made available at Burki. These include schools and college buildings, sports grounds, stadiums, computer labs and hotels.—Jonaid Iqbal
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