Meraj Muhammad Khan Afridi, was a Pakistani socialist politician and philosopher. He was noted as one of the key philosophers and founding personality of the Pakistan Peoples Party and as a major contributor to the initial Left of Centre/Social Democratic so-called Basic Programme of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. He was also founder of Qaumi Mahaz-i-Azadi which he founded after leaving PPP in 1977. In addition, he was a well-known and influential socialist figure in the country, and known for his political struggle and advocacy against anti-capitalist convergence and the support of the social democracy.
Meraj Muhammad Khan came to public prominence in the 1960s while studying at Karachi University. During this time, there was a debating competition in which students from all the colleges of Karachi were participating. At this competition, some activists of the Communist Party were sitting in the audience, who asked him to join the Communist Party after he won that debating competition. He became an active member of the National Students Federation, eventually becoming NSF's president in 1963. Khan turned the NSF into a militant student political organisation that campaigned for the rights of students. In 1967, he quit the NSF after secretly learning of a socialist convention being held in Lahore, Punjab. He was among those who founded the Pakistan Peoples Party and fully endorsed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto for the PPP's chairmanship. Through the PPP, he went into mainstream politics and successfully contested the 1970 general elections on a PPP platform from a Karachi constituency called Lalukhait.
In December 1971, Khan was appointed Minister for Manpower and directed the Ministry of Labour in Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's government. In 1972, his tenure saw a major labour strike in Karachi; though it was peacefully resolved by Meraj's intervention. It was later reported in newspapers and television that the labour strike was actually a competition between two PPP ministers, Meraj and Law MinisterAbdul Hafiz Pirzada for the control of the labour. Meraj's radical leftist group was in direct competition against Law Minister Pirzada's Pro-Peking group. However, Meraj denied all accusations on the television. In 1973, Meraj fell out with the Bhutto government when Bhutto started to compromise on his so-called Socialist agenda and the regime resorted to repressive measures. As time passed, his differences with Prime Minister Bhutto grew and he left the PPP to reorganise the NSF. However, Meraj fell into political isolation, never to regain his political credibility and popularity. Commenting on PPP, Meraj later revealed that "the radical rhetoric was more than a mask designed to win and retain power." He once said: "Ali Bhutto was a great man ... but he could be cruel."
Meraj Muhammad Khan died at a local hospital in Karachi on 21 July 2016 at age 77. He had been hospitalized for a serious respiratory and lung problem for some time.
