Former JI chief Munawwar Hasan laid to rest

Thousands of people from all walks of life attended the funeral of former Jamaat-e-Islami emir Syed Munawwar Hasan in Karachi on Saturday.

Hasan had passed away at the age of 78 on Friday at a local hospital where he had been undergoing treatment for the past few weeks.

JI chief Sirajul Haq offered the Namaz-e-Janaza at the Eidgah Ground in the Nazimabad area. Hasan was buried in the Sakhi Hasan graveyard near the grave of Prof Ghafoor Ahmed, the JI’s former secretary-general.

Hasan’s son Syed Talha Munawwar, JI deputy chiefs Prof Ibrahim, Liaquat Baloch, Rashid Naseem, Asadullah Bhutto and Merajul Huda Siddqui, MNA from Chitral Maulana Abdul Akabr Chitrali, Member of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly Abdul Rashid Turabi, Dir MPA Inayatur Rehman, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s deputy convener Aamir Khan, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leaders Nihal Hashmi and Khwaza Tariq Nazeer, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl’s leaders Qari Muhammad Usman and Abdul Karim Abdi, Pak Sarzameen Party leader Dr Arshad Vohra, Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi head Afaq Ahmed, Karachi Bar Association’s former president Naeem Qureshi, JI leaders Hafiz Naeemur Rehman, Amirul Azeem, Abdul Ghaffar Umar were prominent among those who attended the funeral.

Hasan was born in Delhi in August 1941. After Partition in 1947, he moved with his family from Delhi to Lahore, and then from Lahore to Karachi where he pursued his education and politics.

The former JI chief started his politics from the National Students Federation (NSF), a left-leaning student group, and remained close to the late Mairaj Muhammad Khan.

However, in June 1960, Hasan joined the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba, the JI’s student wing, and became its central chief in 1963 and served in that capacity for three consecutive terms.

Hasan joined the JI in 1968 and became MNA from Karachi in 1977 by securing the highest vote tally in Pakistan. From 1989 to 1991 and 1992 to 1993, he served as the JI Karachi chief and central assistant secretary general respectively. In 2009, he was elected central head of the party.

He was the fourth JI chief who led the party from March 2009 to 2014. In 2014, Hasan was succeeded by Sirajul Haq after the JI’s electoral college picked the latter to head the party for the next five years. For the first time in the history of the JI, a sitting chief failed to clinch a second term in office despite being in the race.

Hasan left behind him his widow, son and a daughter, besides brothers, Shafiq Hasan and Irshad Hasan, along with a number of well-wishers to mourn his death.