KARACHI: Speakers at a condolence reference on Sunday said that the movement for human rights, democracy, and supremacy of law had lost a powerful voice with the death of Abdul Latif Afridi, a senior lawyer, and politician, who was murdered inside a Peshawar High Court bar in January.

The National Democratic Movement (NDM) Sindh chapter organized the condolence reference at Karachi Press Club. Afridi had served as former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association and a founding member of the NDM.

Speakers at the moot said that Afridi always stood for the rule of law and the Constitution in his political and legal career and said that the late leader always talked about others’ rights.

Mohsin Dawar, NDM Chairman and MNA, while addressing the condolence reference, paid tribute to the late Afridi and said that he was a man who always stood with oppressed segments of the society. “Afridi spent his life fighting against injustice. He raised his voice against the dictatorship of General Pervez Musharraf and also confronted the oppressive policies of the state,” he said.

Leaders from the legal fraternity, including Sindh High Court Bar Association’s secretary general Amir Nawaz Waraich, former SHBA Barrister Salahuddin Ahmed, and former Karachi Bar Association president Naeem Qureshi, in their speeches, termed Afridi’s death an irreparable loss for Pakistan, especially for the legal community.

Karachi Press Club’s president Saeed Sarbazi said that the deceased politician and lawyer leader always raised his voice for marginalized and oppressed people, the supremacy of democracy and freedom of expression.

Prominent among other speakers included Awami Workers Party’s central leader, and Pakistan Bar Council’s member Akhtar Hussain Advocate, leaders of both factions of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party Sikandar Yousafzai and Bashir Mandokhel, Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement leader Qazi Tahir, and NDM Sindh president Haji Muhammad Sher also paid homage to Afridi’s role in the country’s struggle for democracy and human rights and said that the late politician had always followed the path which many others had no courage to walk on.

They also said that Afridi departed at an unfortunate time when the Pashtun belt is on the brink of renewed and simmering conflict and at such a critical time, Afridi’s bold voice will be dearly missed.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023