Raza, Syed Hashim

Raza, Syed Hashim (1910-2003) bureaucrat, Acting Governor of East Pakistan. He was appointed Acting Governor of East Pakistan on 1 July 1961while serving as chief secretary to the Government of East Pakistan and continued as Acting Governor till 5 August 1961.

Born on 16 February 1910 in Uttar Pradesh in India, he graduated from Lucknow University in 1930 and obtained MA degree in Political Science in 1932. He joined the Indian civil service in 1934 and received probationary training at Jesus College, Oxford. Hashim Raza served in various capacities such as assistant collector and magistrate (1934-39), deputy secretary of Home and General Departments and provincial press adviser (1940-43), collector and district magistrate of Larkana and Tharparkar districts, Sind (1943-46), secretary to governor of Sind (1946-47), first administrator of the federal capital of Pakistan (1948-51), education and health secretary to the Government of Sind, development commissioner of Sind and chief secretary to the Government of Sind (1951-52), election commissioner of Sind (1953), joint secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (1953).

Hashim Raza composed a good number of gazals, nazm and Shiaite elegy, and wrote a book in Urdu titled Hamari Majileine (Our Destination). He was decorated with the title of Sitara-i-Quaid-e-Azam and Sitara-e-Pakistan.

Hashim Raza died in Karachi on 30 September 2003. [Abu Jafar]