He served as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Council (head of state) and founder, chief ideologue and first leader of the Yemeni Socialist Party from 21 December 1978 to 21 April 1980.

When he was approximately seventeen, Abdul Fattah enrolled in a British Petroleum workers’ training center and began working in an oil refinery from 1956 to 1959 as an apprentice.

But in March 1968, he was arrested by the right-wing faction of the NLF and went into exile, where he drafted the program for Accomplishing National Democratic Liberation, a leftist manifesto.

Subsequent to the "Correction Step" Abdul Fattah was elected Secretary General of the NLF Central Committee, thus making him the country's de facto leader.

However, Abdul Fattah was appointed president of the party before he went to Moscow for medical treatment, until 1985, when he returned in the face of a mounting crisis between Muhammad and his opponents in the YSP.

Unsubstantiated reports claim he was killed when naval forces loyal to Ali Nasir shelled his home in Aden, but his ultimate fate is unknown.