Dr. Hari Sharma Foundation extends heartfelt condolences to friends, family members, and the trade union movement in Pakistan on the passing of Karamat Ali on June 20, 2024.

Karamat Ali (1945 - 2024), was a well-known labour activist, affectionately known to others as Karamat Sahab. He was a crusader for justice, peace, and democracy, and a passionate lover of literature, poetry, and music.

He was Executive Director of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) and a founding member of the Pakistan India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD). He advocated tirelessly for the rights of labourers, fisher people, women, and the oppressed. His passing is a profound loss to the trade union movement and the people of South Asia.

Karamat Ali has been a key activist in the peace process between India and Pakistan and in the South Asian Region as a whole. In 2013, he was awarded the Didi Nirmala Deshpande South Asian Award for Peace and Justice.

He was a friend of the Dr. Hari Sharma Foundation and delivered a lecture in Vancouver in September 2015 on workers’ rights in South Asia.

We salute this militant comrade who worked tirelessly to improve workers lives and made it his mission to strengthen unions.