Khan Lateef Khan was an Educationist Par Excellence, Exemplary Journalist: Tributes

“Khan Lateef Khan had very purposeful meetings focussed on Education. He was a rare combination of vision and action”, said Telangana Advisor Mr A K Khan. It is a great loss for the community and the country, he said.

At the personal level he was a very generous person, and respected people of all ages. He was speaking at the condolence meeting organised at Sultan ul Uloom Education Society (SUES) at Banjara Hills in Hyderabad on Monday.

Editor in Chief of the Munsif Daily Mr Khan Lateef Mohammad Khan passed away on August 7 in Chicago.

Khan Was an educationist par excellence, exemplary journalist and an extraordinary business tycoon. His departure is a great loss to the Hyderabadi, literary and educational community, said SUES Secretary Mr Zafar Javeed.

At a condolence meeting organised by the Sultan ul Uloom Education Society, an umbrella body of 22 educational institutions including the coveted Muffakham Jah College of Engineering and Technology, of which Mr. Lateef Khan was the Chairman for twenty two years, an inconsolable Mr Javeed broke down in tears remembering his “elder brother” and an individual par excellence.

Both Mr Zafar Javeed and Mr Lateef Khan worked extremely closely for 22 years on the society’s board. Mr Javeed’s tribute was an outpouring of his heart, detailing lesser known aspects of Mr Khan’s life.

“Mr Khan would visit society amidst almost everyday and his visit added strength to the society. He was a towering figure, a “person who literally grew from the scratch”, recollected Mr Javeed from “Mr. Khan’s financially troubled childhood to his rise as a business tycoon with real estate offices in Yorkshire and Chicago, and his ascent as a business tycoon.”

Mr Khan never boasted of his enormous wealth and success, even during his private and personal conversations, recollected Mr Javeed adding that under Mr Khan’s chairmanship thousands of students have graduated from the society’s institutions. He made it a point to establish educational institutions in the old city of Hyderabad, where a major section of the people comprise the deserving and impoverished lot.

He even offered to start the school at his residence, at first, and continued to run the schools in old city under the society even when the expenditure for the same costed the society nearly two crores at a time, recollected Mr Javeed.

In his private life, Mr Khan was a spiritual person who would offer Namaz five times a day and recite Qur’an every evening sitting before the imam of a Masjid, who would visit him house every day, until his death.

Former Law Minister Andhra Pradesh Mr Asif Pasha, Treasurer Dr Mir Akbar Ali Khan and others also offered rich tributes to the departed son of Hyderabad.

SUES Vice Chairman Mr. Mohammed Waliullah and  Dr Mir Akbar Ali Khan also offered homage.

Prof Anupama Koneru, Prof. Shehbaz Ahmed, Aziz Pasha, Mr Nisar Ahmed, Ms Vibha Asthana, Aamer Javeed, Osman Ql Hajiri and principals of Society’s constituent colleges and schools were also present.

A short audio video film featuring a memoir of Mr Khan Lateef Khan during different programs as society’s chairman  was also previewed in memory of Mr Khan Lateef Khan.

The meeting was streamed live on Google Meet to accomodate people in different timezones virtually and was limited to less than fifty people to respect social distancing norms.

The program began with the recitation  of Quranic verses and concluded in prayets for the departed soul by Maulana Abdul Raoof.

Veteran Congress leader Mr Mohammed Ali Shabbir who drove to Hyderabad from Kamareddy for the meeting, recollected Mr Khan’s efforts to promote education by establishing institutions by going out of the way to provide education, particularly in old city of Hyderabad with the establishment of Sultan ul Uloom Public Schools.