The liberal lion

Iqbal Haider is no more

One peculiar standard for politicians and public officials that pundits in the media extoll is the impossible one of a candidate not wanting to try for the position himself. Rooted in the cryptic, supposedly Islamic tradition of good public officials actually being dragged to their office despite their protests that they want no powerful position, the rather silly standard is part of a thinly veiled anti-democracy sentiment.

Syed Iqbal Haider, who passed away the other day in Karachi, was, curiously enough, qualified by even that standard. When the PPP wanted to make him the attorney general of Pakistan, a mortified Haider had tried to run away from it. So much so, that finally Benazir Bhutto had to put her foot down (angrily, according to some sources) and force him to take the mantle of the country’s top law officer. He had also been the law minister and the human rights minister as well.

Haider himself wanted to give more time to his passion of human rights activism, an endeavour that also saw him at the helm of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

A die-hard jiyala he might have been, Haider was never shy of disagreeing with his PPP . As a result, never quite comfortable; in fact, he left the party back in 2005. And being an Urdu-speaking, extremely anti-MQM politician wouldn’t have made life in Karachi smooth sailing either.

He also didn’t pull any punches when it came to the military. Of late, he was a vocal proponent of punishing personnel of the intelligence agencies for their interference in politics.

Haider’s voice was always heard against any and all injustices, no cause was too small and no adversary was too well-entrenched. His passion for what he felt was right was never subdued, not even till the very end of his life. In his death, progressive and secular values have lost an untiring champion, one whose loss would be difficult to deal with.

May the dead never die!