HYDERABAD: Makhdoom Ghulam Mohammad aka Makhdoom Khaliquzzaman, the scion of Hala’s Makhdoom family, died in a Karachi hospital on Monday. He was 73.

He left behind two widows, two sons — Makhdoom Aneequzzaman and Makhdoom Labibuzzaman — and a daughter.

His younger brother Dr Makhdoom Rafik Zaman brought the body to family’s residence. He was on dialysis for quite some time.

A pall of gloom hung over Hala when news of his death reached there.

Lovingly called as ‘Gul Saeen’ by his father Makhdoom Mohammad Zaman Talibul Maula, Makhdoom Khaliq was younger brother of late Makhdoom Amin Fahim and elder brother of Dr Makhdoom Rafik Zaman, who is a member of the Sindh Assembly from Matiari.

Also a stalwart of the Movement for Restoration of Democracy (MRD), Makhdoom Khaliq, who was born in Hala on Feb 13, 1949, was also a poet. He got his primary education in Hala and higher secondary education in Balochistan before doing his graduation from Karachi.

He remained close to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and then his daughter Benazir Bhutto.

He was the vice president of the Pakistan Peoples Party’s Sindh chapter in 1976 and elected as MPA from Hyderabad’s rural taluka in the 1977 elections on a PPP ticket.

In May 1986, he was appointed as the president of the PPP-Sindh. However, he resigned from his post soon after developing differences over some organisational matters.

He was elected as an MNA in 1988 elections from NA-171 Hyderabad-V (now separate district Tando Allahyar), defeating Syed Umed Ali Shah of the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad with a huge margin.

He was also elected as a PPP senator during 1990s. Later, he left the PPP and joined Mir Murtaza Bhutto-led PPP-Shaheed Bhutto. He was the provincial president of PPP-SB but finally left politics for good after the killing of Murtaza Bhutto in Sept 1996.

It was only in 2003 when he again took some interest in politics after meeting with Benazir Bhutto in Dubai. But he did not join the mainstream politics as he felt dejected over what he believed the PPP’s response to him.

He would be laid to rest in his ancestral graveyard in Hala in the shrine of Hazrat Ghausul Haq Makhdoom Sarwar Nooh.

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2022