Hazrit Mulana Mufti Mahmud (RH)

Mufti Mehmood-ur-Rehman (; 1919–1980) was a Pakistani Islamic scholar and statesman who was one of the founding members of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI).

He led the opposition movement Pakistan National Alliance against Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, which eventually led to Bhutto's downfall. He was among the principal architects of the 1973 Constitution of Pakistan.

Early life and career Born in January 1919, he was born into the ethnic Nasar Pashtun tribe from Panyala, Dera Ismail Khan District, colonial India (now Pakistan). His father, Maulana Khalifa Muhammad Siddiq, was a religious scholar and had permissions in all four orders of the Sufi Tariqa.

He received his religious education at Madrasa Shahi, Moradabad, UP and graduated from the Darul Uloom Deoband.

In 1941, he worked as a teacher in Isakhel, Mianwali.

At the time of the Indian independence movement Mufti Mahmud opposed the partition of colonial India with the Indian National Congress and opposed the creation of Pakistan.

In Pakistan He served as a Muhtamim at Jamia Qasim-ul-Uloom in Multan and later in his career, he also held the positions of Chief Mudarras in charge of education, Chief Mufti, and Sheikh al-Hadith. He issued at least 25,000 Fatwas in his lifetime and his students included Maulana Abdullah Ghazi, Abdul Majeed Ludhianvi and Noor Muhammad.

Mufti Mahmud was a critic of family planning programme of Ayub Khan's government. He participated in the elections for the National Assembly for the first time under Ayub Khan's 'Basic Democracy Program' and defeated all his opponents in 1962.

On 1 March 1972, he was elected as the chief minister of the province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa during the Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto government in Pakistan.

During his tenure as chief minister, he instituted many reforms, such as prohibition against alcohol, making Urdu as the official language in government offices, ban on interest in financial transactions and declared Friday as the official holiday in his province.

Towards the end of his life, he continued his endeavours for democracy, and in 1980 had started negotiations with his arch-rival PPP, for a joint struggle against dictatorship.