LAHORE, June 23: Speakers at a reference on Monday remembered the late Malik Meraj Khalid for his austere living, straightforwardness, dedication to education promotion, valuing all human beings, irrespective of their status in society and other qualities, becoming extinct in the contemporary world with the passage of time.

The reference was held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali at Alhamra Art Centre. Governor Khalid Maqbool, Millat Party President Sardar Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari and many other leaders of his party expressed their views.

Leaders of several other parties who had been invited and, according to the Millat Party leaders, they had also confirmed their participation, were conspicuous by their absence.

In his brief extempore speech, the prime minister said Malik Meraj Khalid would be missed by the people for a long time to come. His real status and stature in politics, he said, would be known as some more time passes by.

Malik Meraj Khalid was appointed caretaker prime minister after the dismissal of the PPP government in November 1996. Mr Jamali was then the interim chief minister of Balochistan.

Recalling those days, the prime minister said he had got several opportunities to seek guidance from the late Malik Meraj Khalid and found him a noble person who would not reprimand his colleagues on any account.

The late Malik, he said, always lived within his means and disliked ostentation even when he was the country’s chief executive. He said people should emulate the example by not adopting artificial standards of life which could be burdensome for them.

The prime minister was of the view that the late Malik was opposed to changing political parties and it was wrong to say that he had left the PPP. Instead, he said, he was expelled by the leadership.

Millat Party President Farooq Leghari said during his 30-year association he had found Malik Meraj Khalid was a man who had tremendous respect for all human beings. He said Mr Malik had enhanced the importance of various offices by working on them, not the vice versa.

According to Mr Leghari, Malik Meraj Khalid felt upset on any incident which involved insult to humanity, and he had always desired that poverty or joblessness which affected the victims’ self-respect must be eradicated through a sustained campaign.

The Millat party chief said he and the former caretaker prime minister had been advised several times that they should quit politics as they had enjoyed the highest offices. But, he said, both of them rejected such suggestions, saying they would continue to work for the humanity, caring little for the office.

He urged the government to follow Malik Meraj Khalid’s philosophy of national reconstruction. He said unless education and technology were promoted, as the former caretaker premier had wanted, the country would not be able to compete with the contemporary world.

Governor Khalid Maqbool said Malik Meraj Khalid had attained the highest political office despite the fact that he did not belong to a political family and, unlike many politicians, had never used the administration to enhance his importance in the area.

He said good governance could be a vehicle for success in politics and the present government was doing its best to pursue this course. However, he said, there was still room for more work in this area. In his opinion those who talked of religious extremism did not believe in good governance or welfare of the people.

The governor said the electorate should strive to make politicians understand that politics was the name of service to the masses.

Senator Muhammad Ali Durrani, Javed Jabbar, Husain Jehanian Gardezi, Mian Ehsanul Haq, Mian Afzal Hayat, Malik Abdul Qayyum and Zubair Khalid also paid tribute to the late Malik Meraj Khalid.