Sheikh Mohammad Rashid

Sheikh Mohammad Rashid ( _ar. شيخ محمد رشيد), one of the founding fathers of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was regarded as an ideologue by thousands of PPP activists and was committed to a "socialist" belief.But after the PPP's return to power, following long years of the military rule in the 1980s, Sheikh Rashid had gradually felt alienated within the party, despite being its one time Senior Vice Chairman.

He was born into a family of farmers with modest material wealth and entered politics long before the partition of the sub-continent in 1947.

Lawyer

Sheikh Rashid started his career as a lawyer but soon his socialist leanings led him to establish the "Azad Pakistan Party".The organization was a broadly progressive programme and he was appointed its first "secretary-general". In 1967 he joined hands with the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in the formation of the Pakistan Peoples Party. He was a founding member of the party's central executive committee and later a member of the first ever PPP cabinet, initially as Health Minister and then Chairman of the Land Reforms Commission. His efforts at land reforms were said to have made him unpopular with many including some of his own land owning party colleagues.Eventually, the land reforms saw only a half-hearted implementation.

Out of tune

But he remained close to the then Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who treated him as his most senior cabinet colleague, perhaps to retain a balance between the progressive and conservative elements within the party. It was during the period of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq as the military ruler, that Sheikh Rashid's role as an ideologue for thousands of party workers, was boosted.

However, the PPP's return to power in the late 1980s marked the beginning of his gradual alienation with Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who regarded his socialist ideals as being increasingly out of tune with contemporary trends.Despite ideological differences with the leadership, Sheikh Rashid, unlike many other fellow party members, remained steadfast with his commitment to the party and never joined any other political group.

He died in Lahore, aged 85, on the 12th of September 2002.

External links

* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/pakistan/Story/0,2763,834915,00.html Legacy of PPP Pioneer]