Hanif Ramay
Muhammad Hanif Ramay (Urdu: محمد حنیف
رامے; 1930–2006) was an internationally
renowned intellectual, painter, journalist and former Governor and Chief
Minister of Punjab, and he was among the founding fathers of the Pakistan People’s
Party (PPP). He was also speaker of Punjab Assembly from October 1993 to
November 1996.
Hanif Ramay was born in Shimla in 1930 in Arain Family. After
completing B.A. honors degree from Government College Lahore (most prestigious
educational institute in Lahore), later he did his Masters in Economics and
Philosophy as well from Punjab University.
Ramay had an interest in politics from his college years in
Lahore; he held various leadership positions in the local political scene of
Lahore.
Political career
During the dictatorship of Ayub Khan in Pakistan in the 1960s,
Ramay led a group of intellectuals in Lahore in developing Islamic socialist
ideas, drawing on the thought of Ghulam Ahmed Perwez and Khalifa Abdul Hakim,
along with Ba'athist thinkers such as Michel Aflaq. Ramay and his co-thinkers
influenced Zulfikar Ali Bhutto when he founded the Pakistan People’s Party with
Jalaludin Abdur Rahim, and they were the primary ideological influence on the
party's manifesto. Ramay outlined the priorities for the PPP's brand of Islamic
socialism as including elimination of feudalism and uncontrolled capitalism,
greater state regulation of the economy, nationalization of major banks,
industries and schools, encouraging participatory management in factories and
building democratic institutions. They contextualized these policies as a
modern extension of principles of equality and justice contained in the Quran
and practiced under the authority of Muhammad in Medina and Mecca.
Hanif Ramay was elected member provincial assembly on PPP ticket
in 1970. He was Punjab finance minister from 1972 to 1973, Punjab governor from
February 1973 to March 1974 and was appointed chief minister of Punjab from 15
March 1974 to 15 July 1975. Later on, he developed differences with Zulfikar
Ali Bhutto and thus was forced to resign from his position, and later
imprisoned as a result of a malicious prosecution. During the same time frame
he founded the left-wing newspaper Masawaat.
Exile to United States
In a self-imposed exile to evade prosecution from the military
dictatorship, Hanif left for the U.S., in the late 1970s. Hanif Ramay was
associated with the University of California, Berkeley in Northern California
from 1980 to 1983. After the demise of his first wife (Ms. Shaheen), he married
an American woman in 1992, then Joyce Murad, a widow of his close friend, and
lived with her in Fort Myers, Florida (USA) for several years. Hanif was the
author of many best selling Urdu and English books in Pakistan and abroad, the
most famous book he ever wrote was titled Punjab ka Muqadma (Punjab's Trial).
Return to Politics
After deciding to re-enter politics in Pakistan in early 1990s, he
contested in the general election from Lahore on PPP ticket, and thus after
winning he was selected as the Speaker of Punjab Assembly in 1993, and he
remained in that position until 1996.
Death
Ramay died on 1 January 2006 in Lahore after a prolonged illness
resulting out of an accidental fall he took at his home.
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