Veteran Lankan politician dies

Former Sri Lankan western province governor and trade union leader Alavi Moulana passed away at the Age of 84.
He had undergone a surgery for liver complication and was receiving treatment at a private hospital in Colombo.
Alavi Moulana had entered politics in 1948 as a trade unionist and went on to serve as a councilor in the Colombo Municipal Council and also as a Cabinet Minister under the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) government.
In 1994, he entered parliament as the deputy minister of media and thereafter as a Cabinet minister of provincial council and local government and in 2001 appointed as Cabinet minister of labor. He was appointed as the 5th Governor of Western Province on Feb. 1, 2002 and tendered his resignation when the government under Maithripala Srisena was formed in January 2015.
Moulana joined the SLFP in 1956 under the leadership of the late Premier S.W.R.D. Bandaranayake and was the one time senior vice president of the party and the senior vice president of the Sri Lanka Nidahas Sevaka Sangamaya.
He was also an adviser to former President Chandrika Bandaranayake on Muslim Affairs and had served as acting governor for Sabaragamuwa Province in 2009.
He was conferred the title “Jana Prasadini” on his 80th birthday in 2012 by then President Mahinda Rajapaksa and has received many national and international awards for decades of service to trade unionism.

Source : Arab News