Abdul Sattar Afghani ( ur, عبدالستار افغانی; 6 July 1930 – 4 November 2006) was a politician from Karachi,
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
. He was twice elected
Mayor of Karachi
Mayor of Karachi (Urdu: ) is the executive of the Karachi metropolitan corporation and the Karachi local government system of the city of Karachi which is the third tier of governance in Pakistan after Federal and provincial governments.
Pre ...
and once an elected member of the
National Assembly of Pakistan (MNA).
Background
Afghani had
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
-speaking Afghan
Tajik heritage;
his ancestors migrated from
Jalalabad
Jalalabad (; Dari/ ps, جلالآباد, ) is the fifth-largest city of Afghanistan. It has a population of about 356,274, and serves as the capital of Nangarhar Province in the eastern part of the country, about from the capital Kabul. Jala ...
, Afghanistan, and settled in
Bombay
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...
and
Karachi
Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...
. Afghani's family were residents of Karachi's
Lyari neighourhood, living near the Pathan Mosque in Moosa Lane.
His uncle wanted him to join the
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...
youth wing, but
Maulana Maudoodi convinced him to join
Jamaat e Islami instead.
His mother tongue was Persian, but he was also fluent in other local languages such as Sindhi, Balochi, Gujarati and Pashto.
He was an alumnus of the
University of Karachi
The University of Karachi ( sd, ; informally Karachi University, KU, or UoK) is a public research university located in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. Established in June 1951 by an act of Parliament and as a successor to the University of Sindh (wh ...
.
Political career
Mayor of Karachi
He was first elected mayor in 1979, serving until 1983.
[Profile](_blank)
. Retrieved 1 October 2010 He was then reelected the same year and served until 1987.
He was known for his outspokenness for the rights of the city. He was arrested and removed from his office when he was leading a procession of councilors from
KMC Building to the Sindh Secretariat to protest against the
provincial government
A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonomy, ...
's decision not to part with motor-vehicle tax and property tax in favour of
KMC.
National Assembly
He was first elected as a member of Basic democracies system by
Ayub Khan in 1960s, in 1970s he contested general elections against
PPP's Abdul Sattar Gabol from Lyari but lost the election, in 1985 he contested on the same seat against PPP's Ghulam Mohammad Chishti but again lost the election. Afghani finally managed to win a seat in the National Assembly in 2002 from Karachi (
NA 250, Karachi XII).
Family
Afghani married at the age of 17 and had four sons and three daughters.
Death
Afghani died in November 2006 at the
Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi.
He was buried in the
Mewa Shah Graveyard in
Lyari.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Afghani, Abdul Sattar
1930 births
2006 deaths
Mayors of Karachi
Pakistani people of Afghan descent
Pakistani people of Tajik descent
Politicians from Karachi
Members of the National Assembly of Pakistan
Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan politicians
University of Karachi alumni
Burials at Mewa Shah Graveyard