Syed Ali Zaheer was an Indian politician and a member of the First Indian Cabinet, under Jawahar Lal Nehru. He was one of the four sons of Sir Syed Wazir Hasan, former Chief Justice of the Oudh Chief Court. He was married to Begum Aliya who was the Chairperson of the Central Social Welfare Board.
Mr. Ali Zaheer was a barrister who had a very large practice in the Chief Court of Oudh (Awadh). He lived a varied life and was very much on the public stage. He was an elected Municipal Commissioner and thereafter a member of the Uttar Pradesh legislature. In 1946, when the First Indian Cabinet was constituted, he was appointed as the Law Minister in Jawahar Lal Nehru's cabinet. Later on Mr. Ali Zaheer became India's ambassador to Iran. On return from Iran he resumed his legal practice for a short while and again became the Law Minister of Uttar Pradesh for two terms.
Later he became Chairman of Uttar Pradesh Pay Commission. Lucknow's traditional strife between Shias and Sunni was exacerbated by the political rivalry between Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman, a Sunni Muslim League leader, and Syed Ali Zaheer, Shia Leader of Congress. Both fought elections for the Lucknow Municipal Board. Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman later migrated to Pakistan where he became Governor of East Pakistan, now Bangladesh.
Ali Zaheer's younger brother Sajjad Zaheer, was a Communist leader and a man of letters, whose daughter Nadira Babbar was married to Actor MP Raj Babbar. Nadira Babbar herself is well known in theatrical circles in Mumbai. Ali Zaheer's mother, Lady Wazir Hasan, and his wife, Begum Aliya Zaheer, were prominent supporters of the progressive movement for Muslim women.
Though he was a lifetime Congressman, Ali Zaheer briefly left Congress and joined Babu Jagjivan Ram's Congress for Democracy CFD during the general elections of 1977. Mr. Ali Zaheer remained the President of the Shia Degree College Management Committee and was succeeded by his son Kazim Zaheer. Dr. Sakina Hasan, a member of the Committee on the Status of Women, was the eldest child of Syed Ali Zaheer. She married Dr Ammar Hasan, Professor of Orthopaedics at AMU. Syed Ali Zaheer was buried in Daliganj Karbala, in close vicinity to the Shia College.