KARACHI: Michael Javed, a human rights activist and a former parliamentarian, passed away in the early hours of Wednesday after suffering a heart attack in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, his friends and family told Dawn. He was 65.

He left behind four children and a widow.

Patron-in-chief of the Pakistan Sikh Council Sardar Ramesh Singh said Javed had been finalising arrangements to organise his daughter’s wedding next month.

At around 1:30am on Wednesday, he felt pain in his heart and was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he died during treatment after about half an hour.

Originally from Quetta, Javed had arrived here in the early 1970s and got admission to the University of Karachi.

He joined politics in the 1980s and fought as an independent candidate for a seat of Sindh Assembly in 1988, 1990, 1993 and 1997 through his organisation, the Pakistan Minority Front. In 2011, he joined the Pakistan Peoples Party while contending for a seat of the national assembly after the assassination of federal minister for minorities Shahbaz Bhatti. He, however, did not get the position.

He then joined the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and won a seat in the Sindh Assembly. He later left it to join the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. Following Lahore’s Model Town incident in June 2014, he quit the PML-N.

However, he remained actively involved in human rights issues and spearheaded campaigns through his Pakistan Minority Front besides raising rights related to non-Muslim communities in seminars and conferences.

Published in Dawn September 29th, 2016