AIMIM President Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi ( Salar e Millat) Passes Away

The Late All India Majlis e Ittheadul Muslimeen President Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi (Salar e Millat) in a file Photo after winning the election in 1989.

Second Pic the Body of Late AIMIM President Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi kept in Party Headqaurters in Darrusalam for Last Respects in Hyderabad

AIMIM President Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi ( Salar e Millat) Passes Away Sep 29th, 2008

Hyderabad, Sep 29 (IANS) All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) President and former MP Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi ( Salar e Millat) died here Monday night, his family said. He was 76. He was hospitalised about 10 days ago with breathing problems.

Owaisi, who dominated Hyderabad politics for four decades, is survived by his wife, three sons and a daughter.

He breathed his last around 9 p.m. at his residence in Hyderguda. The end came a few hours after he was shifted from hospital, his son and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi said.

His body will be kept at Darussalam, the MIM headquarters, Tuesday morning to enable people to pay their last respects. The burial will take place at the Dargah Hazrat Mohammed Hasan graveyard near the party office.

‘Salar’, as he was popularly known, represented the Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency for two decades. He was first elected to parliament in 1984 and re-elected in 1989, 1991, 1996, 1998 and 1999.

Owaisi began his political career in his youth and was first elected to the state legislative assembly in 1962. He continued to be a state legislator till he was elected to parliament.As the news of his death spread, shopkeepers in Hyderabad downed shutters and black flags were flown in mourning. Police beefed up security as a precautionary measure.

MIM has one MP and five state legislators from the cityof Hyderabad, where Muslims are an overwhelming majority.

Mr Owaisi headed the AIMIM since 1975 and was Member of Parliament from Hyderabad for six terms from 1984 to 2004. Now, his eldest son Mr Asaduddin Owaisi represents Hyderabad in Parliament. His second son Mr Akbaruddin Owaisi is the floor leader of the five-member MIM group in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly.

In the post-Independence era, the MIM was revived in 1958 when Mr Salahuddin Owaisi¢s father and eminent lawyer Moulana Abdul Wahed Owaisi was elected its president. Mr Wahed Owaisi, known as Fakhr-e-Millat, held the post till his death in 1975. Mr Salahuddin Owaisi was elected to succeed him as party chief. He was re-elected for six consecutive terms and held the post till his death.

In March 2004, Mr Salahuddin Owaisi opted out of electoral politics and did not contest the Lok Sabha elections, after being elected to the Parliament from Hyderabad for six consecutive terms during two decades (1984-2004). The party fielded his eldest son and two-term legislator Mr Asaduddin Owaisi from Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency, who is now serving his maiden term in Parliament.

In his political career spanning 50 years, Mr Salahuddin Owaisi held elective posts for 44 years. He was first elected to the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad as a councilor in 1960. As MIM floor leader, he was the leader of the opposition in MCH for two terms (1960-69). He made into the Assembly in the 1962 polls by trouncing the then Congress minister Mrs Masooma Begum from a city constituency. Again, in 1967, he defeated another Congress minister Mir Ahmed Ali Khan by contesting against him. He was elected to the Assembly for five terms between 1962-1984.

A veteran of electoral battles all through his long political career, Mr Salahuddin Owaisi successfully contested elections 13 times and lost only once in the 1977 Lok Sabha elections. He has steered the party through turbulent times during the last 33 years. The party has grown from strength to strength under his leadership. The MIM currently has five MLAs, one Member of Legislative Council (MLC) and one MP, besides a number of councilors and corporators in municipalities and municipal corporations in the state.

Thanks to his efforts, the MIM, through the Dar-us-Salam Educational Trust, established an Engineering College, a Medical College, a Degree College, and Colleges for MBA, MCA, Pharmacy and Nursing, and an Industrial Training Institute. The MIM also runs a Cooperative Urban Bank, besides two major hospitals in the city. Besides fighting for the rights of the Muslim minority, the party has been espousing the cause of Urdu language, literature and culture.