Qazi Ahmad Naeem Qureshi, was the spirit of the historic student movement, which started from the National Students Federation, a revolutionary organization of students against the 10-year military dictatorship of General Ayub Khan in Pakistan in 1968, who continued his struggle from 1968 to 2022. He played a very important role in political training of Pakistani youth, students and workers. He was an advocate by profession. He started the journey from 1968 under the leadership of Tufail Abbas, the wellknown communist leader of Pakistan, and he continued this journey till the last breath of his life.

He was a true revolutionary. Comrade Tufail Abbas died in 2019. He was the chairman of Pakistan Mazdoor Mahaz, a revolutionary party of workers of Pakistan. After his death, Qazi Ahmad Qureshi was elected as the chairman of Pakistan Mazdoor Mahaz.

He died on December 3, 2022 in the city of Rawalpindi, Pakistan. It is a great tragedy of the progressive movement of Pakistan that an enlightened and true revolutionary like Qazi Ahmad Naeem Qureshi is no longer among us today.

He was buried on December 3, 2022 in the presence of thousands of mourners.

Pakistan Mazdur Mahaaz

The death of Qazi Ahmad Naeem Qureshi has caused irreparable loss to the labour movement of Pakistan.

In a joint meeting of the United Labour Federation and Pakistan Labour Front, the participants of the meeting expressed their deep sorrow over the death of Pakistan Labour Front Chairman Qazi Ahmad Naeem Qureshi and said that Naeem Quraishi’s association with the labourers started from his students days. He had been working hard for more than 55 years. He struggled to organize and fight for the rights of the working class. With his death, the hard-working Pakistanis have lost his colleague and leader who always fought their legal battle for the revolutionary and working class. Qazi Ahmad Naeem Qureshi played an important role in organizing students and workers from his student days.

Condolence reference organized by Pakistan Inqalabi Party and National Students Federation in Rawalpindi for Qazi Ahmed Naeem Qureshi Chairman Pakistan Mazdoor Mahaz .

Addressing the condolence reference, the speakers said that the status of Qazi Ahmed Naeem Qureshi was like a fruitful tree, who, apart from providing political training to the workers of all over Pakistan, provided legal guidance and help to them. He started his political activities in 1967 from Government College Asghar Mall Rawalpindi on the platform of National Students Federation (NSF) and he and his colleagues Hasamul Haque, Parvez Rasheed, Hafiz Tahir Khalil, Abdul Khaliq, Shaukat Chaudhry, Shafiqur Rahman Imtiaz Khan Masood Usmani along with Ghulam Nabi Butt and many others, played an important role in the organization of NSF. This was the time when the leadership of NSF was in the hands of revolutionary leaders like Meraj Muhammad Khan and Dr. Rashid Hasan Khan. In 1968, when NSF and Qaumi Mazdoor Mahaz started a movement against the government of General Ayub Khan from Karachi, soon this movement would spread all over Pakistan. Like Karachi, Rawalpindi also became the stronghold of this movement. Naeem Qureshi not only started study circles of students and workers in many cities of Punjab including Rawalpindi, Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, besides Rawalpindi and also organized NSF along with teaching them Marxism.

He was a committed Marxist and Stalinist.

He was a very high-level organiser. He was a slow-tempered but very determined and courageous leader. When Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto broke away from Ayub Khan and founded the Pakistan Peoples Party, he met the Chairman of Qaumi Mazdoor Mahaz, Tufail Abbas and NSF leaders Meraj Muhammad Khan and Dr. Rashid Hassan Khan and PPP made a alliance with Qaumi Mazdoor Mahaz and NSF. In 1970, Qazi Ahmed Naeem Qureshi met with Bhutto in Rawalpindi along with Hasamul Haq, Hafiz Tahir Khalil and his other colleagues and played an important role in advancing this alliance. Although after Bhutto came to power, as a result of differences with many of Bhutto’s policies, Tufail Abbas, Meraj Muhammad Khan and Dr. Rashid Hassan Khan had to bear the hardships of imprisonment, but all these leaders never deviated from their ideals. Qazi Ahmad Naeem Qureshi remained steadfast on his progressive ideas till the last breath of his life.

The role of Naeem Qureshi was very key in organizing the movement against Ayub Khan in the entire country.

After his student days, when he took up the profession of lawyer, he made his office at Asghar Mall Road in Rawalpindi a rest house for the leaders and workers of the Pakistan Mazdoor Mahaz from all over Pakistan and also for the trade union leaders. Apart from this, he followed the cases of the workers from Peshawar to Karachi and Balochistan to the Supreme Court and without any fee. The speakers said on this occasion. Naeem Qureshi held the position of a shade tree for the working class. His compassion towards the workers was like a father. He was a “dervish” human being and Wali Allah who served the workers without discrimination according to his ideas.

They said that when it has been mentioned in the Quran (Holy Book) that this land and everything belongs to Allah, then why do people write their own name in the property, why don’t they write the name of God?

He was very much against the feudalism, tribal system and American imperialism and he was not only against all forms of exploitation but also continued to struggle against it.

He was a founding member of Pakistan Mazdoor Mahaz and from the last three years he was the chairman of Pakistan Mazdoor Mahaz.

All the speakers including Qazi Ahmed Naeem Qureshi’s daughter Amna Qureshi, Shaukat Chaudhary of PMM, Ali Nasir Akram Banda and Syed Abbas Shah, Tahir Javed Malik of PAT, Nasir Mohammad of AWP. Comrade Jameel Bhatti, Labour Qaumi, Movement Pakistan, Comrade Mudassar Mehboob, Labour leader Abdul Sattar, Pakistan Inqalabi Party’s Mushtaq Chaudhry, Comrade Mumtaz Arzoo and Raja Shafiqur Rehman and Communist Party’s Comrade Amar Lal were present.

Dear comrades,

In our common struggle for revolution and socialism his name and his great contribution for the victory will ever live.

We wish that in his name will be continued the fight for the unity of the communists on Marxist-Leninist principles and a powerful International Communist Movement, for which ICMLPO is struggling.

Please, transmit our deep regret and sympathy to the family of comrade Qazi Ahmad Qureshi.

With internationalist feelings,
Communist Platform (Italy)

Click here to return to the April 2023 index.