Gail Alexan­der

Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM)?foun­da­tion mem­ber Ka­malud­din "Charch"?Mo­hammed who died on Tues­day night, will be buried fol­low­ing fu­ner­al rites at 4.30 pm this af­ter­noon at Nur-E-Is­lam mosque, El So­cor­ro.

Ka­malud­din Mo­hammed

Mo­hammed, 88, had been ail­ing in the last two years and had been hos­pi­talised at Mt Hope Hos­pi­tal as re­cent as Sep­tem­ber.

He had served T&T for over 60 years at var­i­ous lev­els from pol­i­tics to re­li­gion, cul­ture and was re­gard­ed as a fa­ther fig­ure by many sec­tors.

His pub­lic ser­vice be­gan as an Imam with the Jaamah Masjid, his son Al­imud­din said yes­ter­day.

Mo­hammed lat­er en­tered pol­i­tics serv­ing with the PNM in 1936 along­side PNM founder Dr Er­ic Williams.

For­mer prime min­is­ter Dr Er­ic Williams, left, and Er­rol Ma­habir, cen­tre, and Ka­malud­din Mo­hammed in an un­dat­ed pho­to tak­en in the 1960s.

He had been a key fig­ure in the PNM since its ear­ly days with the Williams ad­min­is­tra­tion.

One-time St Joseph MP, he served as Min­is­ter in a num­ber of port­fo­lios from Agri­cul­ture, Pub­lic Util­i­ties, Ex­ter­nal Af­fairs, Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment and health. Mo­hammed had al­so served as act­ing prime min­is­ter at points dur­ing the PNM?ad­min­is­tra­tion.

Mo­hammed's son, Al­imud­din said his fa­ther was the first non-Cau­casian to be ap­point­ed World Health Or­gan­i­sa­tion (WHO) pres­i­dent in 1978. The Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex and the Women's Hos­pi­tal were both built un­der his watch.

Af­ter 30 years with the PNM and he re­tired, but he re­turned to ac­tive ser­vice by for­mer prime min­is­ter Bas­deo Pan­day who ap­point­ed him Cari­com am­bas­sador dur­ing the UNC's tenure in 1991-1995.

Mo­hammed was ho­n­oured dur­ing the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship?ad­min­is­tra­tion's tenure, re­ceiv­ing the Or­der of T&T and hon­orary awards. He was al­so pre­sent­ed with the Or­der of Cari­com by the re­gion­al body. In re­cent years he con­tin­ued to be ac­tive in the area of re­li­gion, giv­ing lec­tures and ad­vice, his son said.

Al­imud­din said con­do­lences from all over the world had been pour­ing in since his fa­ther's death was made pub­lic late on Tues­day night.

"T&T has lost a great leg­end and an icon. We would like to car­ry out some of his tra­di­tions. His life was guid­ed by his re­li­gion which as­sist­ed his suc­cess and it was the dis­ci­pline of his re­li­gion that was his ba­sis for life and his work."

Mo­hammed had six chil­dren. His wife, 80, sur­vives him.