LAHORE: PPP founding member Mukhtar Rana who died on Wednesday was laid to rest in London on Friday. Rana, 86, had prolonged illness.

He was a veteran PPP activist who, in his own words, was convicted by his own party colleagues but never betrayed the Bhuttos because of his strong political convictions.

In a March 2008 news story, he talked to Dawn’s Habib Khan Ghori about his life and politics. He was handed down a five-year term in jail by a special military court in 1972, according to him, at the instigation of Ghulam Mustafa Khar. The imprisonment was followed by his forced exile to Sweden in 1977.

Rana was born in Malot, Ferozepur (India) on April 8, 1928. After Partition, he arrived in Karachi and got involved in struggle for workers’ rights at a textile mills. He was very much impressed by Hasan Nasir, who was later arrested and tortured to death at the Lahore Fort.

Rana went to Saudi Arabia to join a multinational oil company but he was sacked for his role in the “labour unrest”.

After coming back to Pakistan, he became a lecturer at the Municipal College, Faisalabad. Again he was forced to leave the job for supporting a strike by college students. He then established his own educational institution called the People’s AcaNewspaper.Lahore:LatestNewsdemy.

During a visit to Faisalabad, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto asked Rana to organise a rally to muster support for the PPP. He organised the rally and, later, was selected as PPP Faisalabad city chief. He also succeeded in securing an assembly seat in the 1970 election. In 2003, Rana founded his organisation, Peace and Human Rights, and led it from London.

Published in Dawn, July 19th , 2014