Born in an aristocratic family, he attended the prestigious Aligarh Muslim University in 1930’s. He later married Mussarat Nizamuddin and lived in Kashmir where he joined the Kashmir Civil Services.
During the end of British colonial rule in India, Agha Shaukat Ali joined the Kashmir Muslim Conference as a Founding Member, after resigning from the services as a Tehsildar in 1946 at the request of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. Agha Shaukat Ali became the General Secretary of Muslim Conference in the same year.
Most notably Agha Shaukat Ali held a public gathering in defiance of prevailing prohibitions at that time, and was imprisoned on the orders of the then Prime Minister Ram Chander Kak, for political reasons from 1946-1949. In Prison Agha Shaukat was beaten and treated very badly by the Ikhlaqis.
Upon the founding of Pakistan in 1947, Agha Shaukat’s release from prison was brokered by the United Nations. He was released as a part of an exchange of political prisoners between India and Pakistan. He was exchanged for Brigadier Ghandara Singh, then Governor of Gilgit, who had been arrested by the Muslims. Leaving his mother and brothers in Kashmir, Agha Shaukat moved to Pakistan with his wife.
However after the death of Qaid-e-Azam M AJinnah , Agha Shaukat Ali was expelled from Muslim Conference.
Later Agha Shaukat attended the Woodrow Wilson School of International affairs at Princeton University as a Fulbright scholar. He enjoyed his time in the United States in the 1950’s and returned to his alma mater on many occasions.
Always with passion and zeal for international affairs, Agha Shaukat’s observations were astute and insightful. He authored the book “The Modernization of Soviet central Asia” and was invited by the government of China to share his predictions regarding the implications of lifting the Red curtain in 1979. He founded the Iqbal-Shariati Foundation in Lahore which funded the translation and publication of the works of Sir Muhammad Iqbal and Ali Shariati, two poet-philosophers whom he greatly admired. He loved Kashmir his Homeland and always wanted to return.
Agha Shaukat Ali is survived by his two brothers, Agha Nasir Ali, 93, and Agha Ashraf Ali, 90, who still reside in Kashmir.
He is also survived by his children, daughter-Tehmina Khan, son-Agha Azhar Ali, and daughter Rabia Ali as well as his daughter–in-law shehrezade Ali (wife of Agha Shaukat’s pre-deceased son-Agha Shahryar Ali.
His wife, Mussarat predeceased him as well as his younger son Shahryar.
He is also survived by his grandchildren: Amina Khan, Ali Khan, Ali Nader Khan, Fatima Ali, Amber Ali, Gisele Ali, Nadia Ali, (all residing in US) and Ayesha Ali and Agha Tariq Ali residing in Pakistan.
(Greater Kashmir)
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