KARACHI, Dec 23: Prominent labour lawyer and veteran trade union leader Ali Amjad died here in a local hospital after a protracted illness. He was 81.

His funeral prayer was offered at Masjid-i-Quba, Karachi Administrative Society, which was largely attended by trade union activists, lawyers and judges.

He was buried in the Milk Plant graveyard, near Hasan Square. He has left behind the wife, a son and two daughters.

Memorial gatherings for the deceased will be held at his residence, C-36 Karachi Administrative Society, on Saturday and Sunday where his friends will meet to pay tribute to him.

Mr Amjad was born on Dec 25, 1924 in Patna, Bihar, in a highly educated family. They were six brothers and a sister. But only two brothers migrated to Pakistan, the other being Ali Asar, who is also a lawyer.

Ali Amjad, a well-known name in the independence and labour movements in India, had undergone many prison terms for his role in the movement. After migrating to Pakistan, he also selected legal profession to be able to defend victimized workers. He was one of the top experts in labour and industrial laws and was enlisted among senior lawyers of the Supreme court.

He had written a novel titled ‘Kali Mati’, which is about the historic workers’ strike of 1958 in steel mills at Jamshedpur, Jharkhand. It is considered a valuable work in Urdu literature. He had also authored a book, ‘Evolution of Labour Laws in India and Pakistan’. This book also encompasses the history of trade unions and labour laws.

Ali Amjad’s latest book is ‘Shakh-i-Nihal-i-Gham’, launched only last month at the Arts Council. This book is political autobiography of the author which also gave an insight into important phases of the Communist Party of India.

Meanwhile, the members of the National Council of Academics and Irtiqa Institute of Social Sciences expressed their heartfelt sorrow over the death of Ali Amjad.

Offering condolences, in a press release, they said his death was a great loss of an outstanding political activist, intellectual, author and specialist on trade union legislations.