The Southasia Peace Action Network, Sapan, joins peacemongers around the globe in paying tributes to the eminent psychiatrist and peace activist Dr. Haroon Ahmed who passed away in Karachi on April 3, aged 94.
Dr Haroon was a pioneering psychiatrist, humanist, and a steadfast advocate for peace, democracy, and cross-border solidarity in Southasia as the Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy notes in a statement jointly issued by India and Pakistan chapters of the Forum.
When Sapan was launched in March 2021, its supporters included Dr. Haroon and his comrade and partner-in-peace activism Anis Haroon. The couple had been almost inseparable since their marriage in 1974.
“Dr. Haroon Ahmed and Anis Haroon have, as comrades in action together, contributed immensely to the pursuit of human rights and justice in Pakistan and South Asia, and strengthened each other in the collective perusal of feminist ethos in socio-political transformation in the entire South Asian region,” says PIPFPD.
Dr Haroon had suffered a stroke just a week before he was due to speak at the Sapan seminar on the last Sunday of June, 2021. The seminar, titled ‘Neigbours in Peace and Health’ focused on public health as a basic human right. He never fully recovered.
As a medical student at Dow Medical College in the late 1940s and early 50s, Dr Haroon was among the founder members of the Democratic Students Federation, a nationwide movement that brought students together across the country, including then East Pakistan, later Bangladesh, on a minimum common agenda for students rights. Sapan takes forward many of the lessons learnt from that struggle which focused on student unity across ideological and political divides.
Dr Haroon was a towering figure in the field of mental health in Pakistan. He co-founded the Pakistan Psychiatric Society and the Pakistan Association for Mental Health and was instrumental in the passage of the Sindh Mental Health Act (2013).
“Yet, he never viewed mental health in isolation from broader social and political realities. For him, healing a society meant addressing its traumas — both internal and collective,” as the PIPFPD statement notes.
He was also a founder of the Pakistan Medical Association along with some of his DSF comrades.
“A bold and principled voice, Dr. Haroon vehemently advocated for demilitarisation and denuclearisation in the region. Following the 1998 nuclear tests, he stood firm against the tide of jingoism, speaking clearly about the devastating human cost of militarised nationalism. As president of the Pakistan chapter of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, he exemplified the courage to speak truth to power.
“His political commitment was grounded in action. Dr. Haroon was a key participant in the historic November 1995 Convention of the Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy in Lahore, where civil society from both countries came together to assert the urgent need for dialogue, mutual understanding, and people-to-people contact,” notes PIPFPD. He was also an active member of five PIPFPD joint conventions in various cities across Pakistan and India.
Dr Haroon reminded us that peace is not simply the absence of war, but the presence of justice and mental well-being. His activism integrated the political with the deeply persona, never losing sight of the human cost of conflict, the trauma of displacement, and the urgency of reconciliation.
Along with our fellow peacemongers at PIPFPD, we at Sapan honour Dr. Haroon Ahmed “not just as a leader of his profession, but as a comrade in our collective struggle for peace and people-to-people friendship. His life stands as a testament to the idea that it is possible—and necessary—to speak truth to power, to work across borders, and to imagine a South Asia rooted in care rather than fear.”
“We extend our heartfelt condolences to his family, friends, colleagues, and to all those who have been moved by his life and engagements. In his memory, we recommit ourselves to the values he so courageously embodied.
Rest in Peace and Power Dr. Haroon.”
*Post corrected to reflect Dr Haroon’s age, 94 at the time of his passing. He was born in 1931, in Jaunpur, UP, in undivided India.