[3][2] But after the PPP's return to power, following long years of the military rule in the 1980s, Sheikh Rashid had gradually felt alienated within the party, despite being its one time Senior Vice Chairman.
[4] Sheikh Mohammad Rashid was born in 1915 in Sheikhupura into a family of farmers and entered politics by joining the All India Muslim League in 1940.
In 1947 just before the independence of India and Pakistan, when religious and ethnic tensions arose and riots erupted, he formed a local "bombard group" against the Unionist government and was arrested while transporting some bombs in a tonga (a horse-driven vehicle commonly used at that time).
[3][2] Sheikh Mohammad Rashid remained close to the then Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who treated him as his most senior cabinet colleague, perhaps to retain a balance between the progressive and conservative elements within the party.
It was during the period of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq as the military ruler, that Sheikh Rashid's role as an ideologue for thousands of party workers, was boosted.
Once the Bhutto government was overthrown by General Zia-ul-Haq, Pakistan Peoples Party workers including Rashid were repressed and he spent many years in exile in Britain.
However, the PPP's return to power in 1988 marked the beginning of his gradual alienation with Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who regarded his socialist ideals as being increasingly out of tune with contemporary trends.
[2] Although his idea was proven valid later because similar generic drug schemes were later implemented in many countries including Egypt, Bangladesh and it was endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO).