Quamar Ul Islam, a young engineer, started his political career in the 1970s as a leader of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) in Kalaburagi. He won the assembly polls, defeating veteran Congress leader Mohammad Ali in 1978. He continued in IUML and won again in 1989. Later, he joined the Congress and won in 1994.

In 1996, he resigned and join the Janata Dal for a short time to enter the Lok Sabha on a Janata Dal ticket. He quit his Parliament membership to contest the assembly polls again and became a minister for housing in S.M. Krishna’s cabinet.

Considered the senior-most Muslim leader from Hyderabad-Karnataka, he represented Kalaburgi six times in the State assembly. He is the only Muslim leader after Aziz Sait from Karnataka to be continuously elected.

He held the municipal administration and Waqf portfolio for three years in the Siddharamaiah cabinet, and was the first chairman of the Hyderabad-Karnataka Regional Development Board, and has served as chairman of Karnataka Housing Board, Karnataka Minority Commission and Karnataka Slum Board in the past.

He had long lasting relationships with senior leaders such as Ghulam Nabi Azad, N. Dharam Singh and Mallikarjun Kharge.

He founded the Al-Quamar Educational and Charitable Trust, that runs the KCT engineering college, pharmacy and diploma colleges in Kalaburg.

source:  http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> State> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Belagavi – September 18th, 2017