September 15, 2026
By Xari Jalil
LAHORE
Democracy in Pakistan has rarely enjoyed smooth sailing. Its timeline is marked by suspended constitutions, military coups, press blackouts, and political purges. Yet, if the democratic ideal remains resilient in the national consciousness, it is because of a force of extraordinary and brave men and women who have not just vehemently defended constitutionalism—they paid for it with their freedoms, livelihoods, and, in some cases, their lives.
On this World Democracy Day, we look back at the titans across journalism, law, civil society, and parliament who stood as unyielding pillars against autocratic overreach.
THE PRESS VANGUARD: Truth Against Censorship
When authoritarian regimes attempt to dismantle democratic structures, their first target is almost always the independent press. In Pakistan, there have been generations of journalists who took up the pen as a weapon of democratic resistance. They are remembered even today by journalists in their quest and struggle for a free press.
Razia Bhatti (1944-1996)
Razia Bhatti was a towering figure in investigative current-affairs journalism. Over a 30-year career, she transformed political reporting in Pakistan, defining independent journalism across two major publications.
As the trailblazing editor of The Herald and later Newsline, Razia Bhatti, or Razia Bondrey as she was also known, redefined investigative journalism in Pakistan.
She consistently refused to tone down coverage during martial law, publishing hard-hitting exposes on state corruption, human rights abuses, and political suppression. Her standard of uncompromising editorial integrity remains a beacon for the country’s press.
Under her stewardship, Newsline broke taboos by investigating drug syndicates, political corruption, military overreach, state violence in Karachi, and human rights abuses. Her reporting drew hostility from successive governments—from flight bans imposed by Benazir Bhutto’s administration to police raids on her home ordered by Sindh provincial authorities.
Nisar Usmani (1931-1994)
A legendary newsman and veteran leader of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), Usmani was the intellectual and moral force behind decades of trade union resistance. He led historic protests against state press advice, press bans, and the persecution of media workers under authoritarian rule.
Usmani was a pillar of investigative journalism, trade unionism, and civil liberties in Pakistan. Alongside Minhaj Barna, Osmani formed part of the formidable leadership of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) that consistently stood up to state autocracy. Osmani was known for questioning power directly. Whether confronting General Ayub Khan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, or General Zia-ul-Haq at press conferences, his direct, uncompromising questions earned him widespread respect—and frequent state hostility. He refused to compromise on facts, regardless of whether the regime was military or civilian.
Minhaj Barna (1923-2011)
An iconic figure in Pakistan’s trade union movement, Barna spearheaded the historic 1978 nationwide journalists’ movement against General Zia-ul-Haq’s martial law. Under his leadership, journalists chose imprisonment, economic hard
ship, and exile over editorial submission. His contributions have forever shaped how journalists and newspaper workers organized for their fundamental rights.
His mobilization efforts led to structural protections for media workers, including combined wage boards and provisions under the Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) Act.
In 1970, Barna organized a 10-day nationwide press shutdown following a historic referendum among media workers. The strike challenged press barons and state control, eventually leading to constitutional safeguards for journalistic rights in the 1973 Constitution. During General Zia’s martial law regime, state authorities banned publications (including Musawaat) and arrested journalists. In response, Barna spearheaded a resistance movement that saw press workers arrested, lashed, and exiled.
In 1978 while imprisoned in Khairpur jail for protesting press bans, Barna went on a prolonged hunger strike unto death to demand the release of jailed media workers and the restoration of banned publications. The military government eventually acceded to his demands. However, the strike caused severe, permanent damage to his health, leaving him with chronic stomach complications that persisted for the rest of his life.
Nasir Zaidi
On May 13, 1978, Zaidi and three fellow journalists—Masoodullah Khan, Khawar Naeem Hashmi, and Iqbal Jafri—courted arrest at the Musawaat offices in Lahore.
Produced before a summary military court, the journalists refused to stay silent and openly challenged the court’s jurisdiction to try newsmen. In response, the military magistrate sentenced them to public flogging and imprisonment within hours. His unflinching courage on that day transformed him into an enduring, living symbol of resistance against tyranny.
Inside Lahore Central Jail, despite international outrage, Zaidi, Hashmi, and Jafri were whipped across their backs. Witnesses recorded that even as they were being lashed, the journalists raised slogans demanding freedom of the press and the end of military rule.
Rather than intimidating the press, the floggings galvenized the journalist community. Zaidi survived the ordeal and continued his career, serving across decades in leadership roles within the PFUJ.
To this day, Zaidi remains an active advocate for media rights, labor protections for press staff, and protection against modern digital and state censorship.
THE BAR AND THE BENCH: Defenders of the Constitution
The battle for democracy in Pakistan has frequently been fought inside courtroom halls. Whenever executive power overreached, these jurists and legal champions held the line for constitutional supremacy.
Justice Dorab Patel (1924-1997)
A jurist of rare conviction, Justice Patel famously delivered a dissenting judgment against the death sentence of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. In 1981, he chose to resign from the Supreme Court rather than take an oath under General Zia’s Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO). He went on to co-found the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).
In 1979, during the politically charged trial of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Justice Patel was part of the seven-member Supreme Court bench. He was one of the three dissenting judges (alongside Justice Safdar Shah and Justice Muhammad Haleem) who voted for Bhutto’s full acquittal, holding that the prosecution had failed to establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
In March 1981, military ruler General Zia-ul-Haq promulgated the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO), which required judges to take a new oath that stripped the courts of their power to review military court decisions or challenge martial law decrees. Justice Patel was next in line to become Chief Justice of Pakistan. However, he refused to take the PCO oath, resigning from the Supreme Court on principle alongside Senior Justice Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim.
Following his resignation, Justice Patel turned his attention to civil society. In 1987, alongside Asma Jahangir and other prominent jurists, he co-founded the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and served as its founding Chairman. He spent his later years documenting state overreach, defending religious minorities, and campaigning against capital punishment.
He served as a member of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and held senior leadership roles within Amnesty International, elevating Pakistani civil liberties issues on global platforms.
Asma Jahangir (1952-2018)
Universally remembered as the conscience of the nation, Jahangir was a fierce legal defender of civil liberties, minority rights, and democratic norms. Whether facing physical threats, street teargas, or imprisonment, she led street demonstrations and legal battles against state repression, eventually co-founding HRCP and becoming the first female president of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA).
Her legal activism began in 1972 while she was still a teenager, when she petitioned the courts against the detention of her father, politician Malik Ghulam Jilani, under martial law regulations—a case (Malik Ghulam Jilani v. Government of West Pakistan) that reached the Supreme Court.
In 1980 alongside her sister Hina Jilani and fellow women lawyers, she established AGHS Law Associates, the first all-women law firm in Pakistan. AGHS provided free legal counsel to the most vulnerable—indigent women, child prisoners, bonded laborers, and religious minorities.
In the early 1980s, she co-founded the Women’s Action Forum to organize resistance against General Zia-ul-Haq’s discriminatory Hudood Ordinances and proposed Law of Evidence. During street demonstrations in Lahore in 1983, she faced police teargas, batons, and imprisonment.
Imprisoned for her active participation in the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) against Zia-ul-Haq’s military rule. 2007 Lawyers’ Movement: Placed under house arrest for three months after General Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency in November 2007. Upon her release, she helped mobilize the legal fraternity and civil society to demand the restoration of the constitution and deposed judges.
Abid Hassan Manto
A deeply respected constitutional lawyer, veteran socialist, and former President of the SCBA, Manto spent decades litigating for electoral reforms, the rights of the working class, and basic democratic structures. His legal acumen helped shape constitutional jurisprudence surrounding fundamental rights.
Minto utilized the superior courts to litigate pro bono on behalf of working-class citizens, peasants, and minority communities. He consistently challenged discriminatory provisions under martial law decrees, such as separate electorates for religious minorities and gender-discriminatory aspects of Zia-ul-Haq’s Qanun-e-Shahadat (Law of Evidence).
During General Zia-ul-Haq’s martial law, he chaired the National Coordination Committee of Lawyers (1981–1985), leading legal fraternity protests against constitutional suspensions and military court trials. He faced multiple arrests under successive authoritarian regimes
A lifelong socialist and political organizer, Minto served as the founding president of the National Workers Party and later the Awami Workers Party (AWP) in 2012, aiming to unite progressive, secular, and working-class political forces in Pakistan.
Elected Vice-President of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) in 1990 at its Barcelona Congress, he represented Pakistan’s democratic legal tradition alongside international figures like Nelson Mandela.
Munir A. Malik
As President of the SCBA in 2007, Malik emerged as a pivotal leader of the historic Lawyers’ Movement. When the judiciary was subverted under General Pervez Musharraf’s emergency rule, Malik mobilized the legal fraternity across the country, enduring brutal detention and torture to successfully demand the restoration of an independent judiciary.
He emerged as a chief strategist and front-line leader of the historic Lawyers’ Movement (Adliya Bachao Tehreek), which challenged military rule and mobilized civil society to restore an independent judiciary.
THE INSTITUTIONAL ANCHORS: Keeping Civil Society Alive
I.A. Rehman (1930-2021)
An intellectual powerhouse, veteran editor, and long-time director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) ‘Rehman Sahib’, as he was fondly called, was the quiet backbone of Pakistan’s democratic consciousness. For over six decades, his writing, research, and advocacy documented state overreach, protected marginalized communities, and educated successive generations on democratic rights.
Rehman was part of the founding the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) which was formed in 1987. He served as its Director for over two decades (1990–2008) and later as its Secretary-General (2008–2016). Under his stewardship, HRCP grew into Pakistan’s premier independent human rights watchdog, documenting state abuses, enforced disappearances, labor exploitation, and minority persecution across all provinces.
Along with Minhaj Barna and Nisar Osmani, Rehman was a founding member of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ). During General Zia-ul-Haq’s military dictatorship, he was fired from The Pakistan Times for opposing state censorship and was jailed under martial law for organizing press freedom protests.
A founding member of the Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD), he was a firm believer that true regional stability required democratic civil supremacy, reduced militarization, and cross-border dialogue between civil societies.
POLITICAL COURAGE: The Parliamentary Frontline
Democracy cannot survive without political actors who organize the masses and champion the rights of the federation against centralizing autocratic forces.
Benazir Bhutto (1953-2007)
Bhutto, or BB as she was called, was a towering figure in Pakistan’s political history and a global symbol of democratic resistance. She broke historic barriers as the first female Prime Minister of a Muslim-majority nation, serving two non-consecutive terms (1988–1990 and 1993–1996). Beyond her premierships, her defining legacy in Pakistani constitutional history remains her decades-long struggle against military rule and her efforts to anchor civilian supremacy in national politics.
Daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (Pakistan’s first democratically elected Prime Minister), her political life began in the shadow of General Zia-ul-Haq’s 1977 military coup and her father’s execution in 1979.
At just 26, she assumed leadership of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and spearheaded the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) against Zia’s martial law regime.
Between 1977 and 1984, she spent over five years in solitary confinement, house arrest, and political exile. Despite state efforts to crush the PPP, her return to Lahore in April 1986 drew a historic crowd of over a million people, cementing her position as the popular face of anti-dictatorship resistance.
Following General Zia’s death in a plane crash, she led the PPP to victory in the 1988 general elections, becoming Prime Minister at age 35. Her government worked to restore trade unions, release political prisoners, and lift bans on student organizations.
Both of her terms as Prime Minister were prematurely terminated by the military-backed establishment using powers under Article 58(2b) of the Constitution, illustrating the intense structural friction between elected civilian leadership and non-elected state institutions during the 1990s.
While in exile in London, she signed the landmark Charter of Democracy (CoD) in May 2006 alongside her rival Nawaz Sharif. The document laid down a joint blueprint for ending military interference in politics, restoring constitutional balance, ensuring judicial independence, and establishing democratic norms between rival political parties.
Returning to Pakistan in October 2007 to challenge General Pervez Musharraf’s military rule and participate in upcoming general elections, she survived a massive suicide bombing on her welcome rally in Karachi. Refusing to back down from campaigning, she was assassinated on December 27, 2007, following a political rally at Liaquat Bagh, Rawalpindi.
Her martyrdom galvanized democratic sentiment across the country, leading to the 2008 general elections that ended General Musharraf’s rule and eventually birthed the 18th Constitutional Amendment, fulfilling key objectives of her Charter of Democracy by restoring parliamentary democracy and provincial autonomy.
Mir Ghaus Bux Bizenjo (1917-1989)
Respectfully known as Baba-e-Muzakrat (Father of Negotiations), the veteran Baloch statesman was a steadfast advocate for provincial autonomy, parliamentary democracy, and constitutionalism. He consistently argued that a strong federation could only exist through democratic inclusion and genuine rights for smaller provinces.
Bizenjo held that Pakistan could only survive as a stable nation if it functioned as a genuine federation that respected the equal rights, cultures, and resources of all its units—particularly smaller provinces like Balochistan. He consistently opposed centralized autocracy, including the “One Unit” scheme imposed in 1955.
As Secretary-General of the National Awami Party (NAP), Bizenjo traveled to Dhaka alongside Khan Abdul Wali Khan in early 1971 to urge Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and military authorities to pursue a negotiated political solution rather than military action, warning that armed suppression would lead to national tragedy.
Following the 1970 general elections, Bizenjo served as the 3rd Governor of Balochistan in NAP’s short-lived provincial coalition government. During his 10-month tenure, he pushed for administrative decentralization, local educational expansion, and civil dialogue.
Despite political friction between Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s ruling PPP and the opposition NAP, Bizenjo played a critical role in negotiating the consensus behind the 1973 Constitution of Pakistan. His insistence on securing fundamental rights, provincial autonomy, and parliamentary sovereignty ensured NAP signed the constitutional accord.
When Bhutto unconstitutionally dismissed the NAP provincial government in early 1973, Bizenjo was arrested alongside Ataullah Mengal and Khair Bakhsh Marri, spending years in jail and facing trial in the infamous Hyderabad Conspiracy Case. Under General Zia-ul-Haq’s regime, he helped lead the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) to revive civilian, constitutional rule.
Farhatullah Babar
Babar is a veteran politician, human rights advocate, former journalist, and three-term senator from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa representing the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Known as one of Parliament’s most principled, articulate voices on civil-military relations, constitutionalism, and civil liberties, he has consistently challenged state overreach regardless of which political party was in power.
Inside the Senate of Pakistan, Senator Babar emerged as the most consistent parliamentary critic of extrajudicial detentions and missing persons. He repeatedly called for subjecting intelligence agencies (such as the ISI and MI) to parliamentary oversight and statutory legislation.
Babar chaired the Senate Special Committee on Right to Information, playing a central role in drafting and advocating for robust transparency laws to ensure citizens could hold state institutions accountable.
Known for calling out what he termed the “judicialisation of politics and politicisation of the judiciary,” Babar famously warned against non-elected centers of power operating as a “state within a state”. His uncompromising floor speeches often drew discomfort even from within his own party hierarchy.
Babar continues to serve as the head of the PPP’s Human Rights Cell and as an active council member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP). He has consistently backed progressive legislation protecting women, religious minorities, and political dissidents.
ALLIES OF THE RESISTENCE
Beyond the newsroom and the courtroom, democracy was sustained by cultural and grassroots organizers:
Habib Jalib (1928-1993)
The revolutionary poet whose razor-sharp verse provided the anthem for every anti-dictatorship protest from Ayub Khan to Zia-ul-Haq. When Field Marshal Ayub Khan enforced a centralized, state-crafted constitution in 1962, Jalib penned his most famous anthem of defiance, Dastoor (The Constitution):
“Aise dastoor ko, subh-e-be-noor ko / Main nahin maanta, main nahin jaanta”
(Such a system, a dawn without light / I refuse to acknowledge, I refuse to accept)
During General Zia-ul-Haq’s regime, Jalib faced frequent arrests, solitary confinement, and physical assaults. He openly mocked Zia’s state-sponsored religious hypocrisy and censorship in poems like Zulmat ko Zia (Writing Darkness as Light):
“Zulmat ko zia, sar-sar ko saba, bande ko khuda kya likhna”
(How can I call darkness ‘light’, a desert wind ‘a breeze’, or a mere mortal ‘God’?)
Unlike opportunistic political figures, Jalib was an uncompromising ideological purist. He publicly criticized civilian leaders—including Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto—whenever he felt their governments departed from democratic principles or failed the working class.
Tahira Mazhar Ali (1924-2005)
Tahira Mazhar Ali was a left-wing activist, feminist pioneer, trade unionist, and anti-dictatorship crusader. Over a six-decade career, she pioneered grassroots organizing in Pakistan by linking women’s rights directly to working-class labor rights.
In 1950, alongside figures like Alys Faiz, Hajra Masood, and Khadija Omar, she co-founded the Democratic Women’s Association (DWA)—recognized as Pakistan’s first independent leftist women’s organization. DWA organized women in working-class neighborhoods and railway colonies rather than restricting its reach to urban elites.
Under her leadership, Pakistan celebrated International Women’s Day on March 8 for the first time publicly in 1948, demanding equal political, economic, and social rights for women. In 1971, she was among the very few voices in West Pakistan who publicly protested in Lahore against the military crackdown and human rights violations in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), for which she was arrested.
During General Zia-ul-Haq’s military regime, she was jailed for organizing protests against martial law decrees, state censorship, and discriminatory laws like the Hudood Ordinances. In 1981, she joined hands with younger feminist activists to support the founding and street campaigns of the Women’s Action Forum (WAF).
Beyond her organizational work, she served as a trusted political mentor and confidante to Benazir Bhutto during the young leader’s anti-dictatorship struggle against Zia.
Hina Jilani
Jilani is a world-renowned human rights lawyer, advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and pro-democracy campaigner.
Alongside her sister Asma Jahangir, she pioneered public-interest 
litigation and institutionalized legal defense for women, children, and political dissidents in Pakistan.
Jilani co-founded WAF in 1981 to organize resistance against General Zia-ul-Haq’s discriminatory Hudood Ordinances and Law of Evidence. She was arrested during the historic February 1983 women’s protest in Lahore. Played a prominent role in mobilizing lawyers against General Pervez Musharraf’s suspension of the constitution and deposition of the judiciary.
Jilani co-founded AGHS Law Associates, Pakistan’s first all-female law firm. AGHS established the first legal aid center in Pakistan, offering pro bono services to vulnerable populations, including women facing honor killings, child laborers, and political prisoners under martial law.
In 1991 Hilani established Dastak, a shelter providing safe refuge, legal protection, and psychological support to women fleeing domestic abuse, forced marriages, and state violence.
Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan (1916-2003)
Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan was a veteran politician, constitutional scholar, and parliamentary strategist widely known as the “Baba-e-Jamhooriyat” (Father of Democracy). Spanning over six decades, his political career was defined by his extraordinary ability to unite fiercely divided political parties under broad opposition coalitions to challenge military regimes and restore civilian rule.
The veteran political strategist who repeatedly achieved the impossible—uniting fiercely divided political parties under broad democratic umbrellas like the MRD and the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) to challenge autocratic regimes.
Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan’s historic contribution to Pakistani politics was his capacity to bridge ideological divides—bringing together left-wing, right-wing, secular, and religious parties onto a single anti-dictatorship platform. He played a key role in organizing the opposition alliance that backed Fatima Jinnah against Field Marshal Ayub Khan’s presidential campaign, and was instrumental in building the coalition of opposition parties that forced Ayub Khan’s resignation.
A primary architect of the historic MRD alliance formed during General Zia-ul-Haq’s martial law, bringing together the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Awami National Party (ANP), PDP, and others to demand general elections and the restoration of the 1973 Constitution.
Organized the grand opposition alliance against General Pervez Musharraf’s military regime, uniting traditional political rivals—the PPP and the PML-N—which eventually laid the groundwork for the 2006 Charter of Democracy.
The Unfinished Journey
The legacy of these individuals is not merely historical—it is an ongoing directive. As Pakistan continues to navigate complex political challenges, the courage shown by these journalists, jurists, and activists reminds us that democracy is never given; it is defended, step by step, by those willing to stand for the truth.