Mahmud Ali Kasuri

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Mian Mahmud Ali Kasuri b. 1910

Prominent Pakistani opposition politician, human rights advocate and lawyer (Senior Advocate Supreme Court). He served in the Indian National Congress Party before Pakistan's creation and subsequently joined the National Awami Party, briefly serving as the party President. He later joined the Pakistan Peoples Party where he played a key role in the formation of Pakistan's first unanimous constitution in 1973. He later left the Pakistan Peoples Party after becoming disillusioned with the increasing brutality with which the government targeted the opposition. He then joined the opposition Tehrik-e-Istiqlal of Asghar Khan, remaining associated with that party until his death.

As a leftist lawyer he served on the International Tribunal created by Bertrand Russell for trying American war crimes in Vietnam and founded the Civil Liberties Union for the Protection of Human Rights. He also defended his former comrades in the National Awami Party when they were imprisoned by the PPP government for high treason.