Mufti Mahmud

Maulana Mufti Mahmud (Pashto: مفتى محمود‎), (1919–1980) was an Islamic cleric, a member of Indian National Congress party, and one of the founding members of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) in Pakistan.

Born in January 1919, he was an ethnic Marwat Pashtun from Abdul Khel, Dera Ismail Khan District. He received his religious education from Jamia Qasimiya in Moradabad, India. In 1941, he worked as a teacher in Isakhel, Mianwali. He was a militant activist of the Indian National Congress, participating in the Indian Independence Movement in the 1940s. He opposed the idea of partition and campaigned against the Muslim League.

He worked as a teacher in Madrassa Qasim-ul-Uloom in Multan, Punjab in 1950. Later in his career, he held positions of Chief Mudarras in charge of Education, Chief Mufti, Sheikh-ul-Hadith and Muhtamim. He issued at least 25,000 Fatawa in his lifetime. He opposed President Ayub Khan's 'One Unit Scheme'. Mufti Mahmud 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.

After the 1970 General Elections in Pakistan, he became the president of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam founded by Shabir Ahmed Usmani. His party went into a coalition with the National Awami Party & Pakistan Peoples Party for the 1970 General Elections. In the 1970s, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam received significant funding from Saudi Arabia.

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