Rafiq Hajat is a prominent Malawian civil rights activist. He is the director for the Institute for Policy Interaction (IPI)in Malawi.

Career

Vice president of the country's chamber of commerce and industry, chairman of DEMAT, the Development of Malawian Traders' Trust, and also founding director of the Institute for Policy Interaction (IPI).

Political career

He was a member of the executive in the United Democratic Front

United Democratic Front (Malawi)

The United Democratic Front claims to be a liberal party in Malawi and is mainly strong in the southern region populated by ethnic Yao. Until 2009 the party was a member of Liberal International, which it joined at the latter's Reykjavík Congress in 1994...

Activism

He is the founding director of the Institute for Policy Interaction (IPI) and is the founder of Transparency International

Transparency International

Transparency International is a non-governmental organization that monitors and publicizes corporate and political corruption in international development. It publishes an annual Corruption Perceptions Index, a comparative listing of corruption worldwide...

 - Malawi Chapter. Hajat and Malawi Democratic Party

Malawi Democratic Party

The Malawi Democratic Party is a political party in Malawi. The party was founded by Kamlepo Kalua, et al. At the last general elections of May 20, 2004, the party was part of the Mgwirizano Coalition, that won 27 out of 194 seats....

 (MDP) president Kamlepo Kalua

Kamlepo Kalua

Kamlepo Kalua is a Malawian politician. From the Rumphi District, Kalua is the leader of the opposition Malawi Democratic Party. He ran in the 1999 presidential election, where he finished in third place with 1.4% of the total national vote.-Zimbabwe:...

 formed a Forum for the Defence of Democracy a pressure group on governance concerns under the
Mutharika

Bingu wa Mutharika

Bingu wa Mutharika is a Malawi economist who is President of Malawi. He took office on 24 May 2004 after winning a disputed presidential election...

 administration.

July 20th Protests

Hajat was one of the main civil society organizers of the July 20th Ultimatum and July 20th nation wide economic protestsJuly 20th Ultimatum . This forced him to go in to hiding for a few days but later he continued to organize the subsequent protests.

IPI Office Burned

On September 2, 2011, The offices of the IPI were burned whilst Hajat was traveling to Lilongwe.