Pahad was a prominent figure in the fight against apartheid, helping to steer the government as a parliamentary counsellor under then-president Thabo Mbeki.

Pahad was then appointed as the Minister in the Presidency after the 1999 elections, a prominent advisor to Mbeki however, after Mbeki's resignation as president in September 2008, Pahad submitted his resignation as the minister as well.

Pahad then represented the SA Communist Party (SACP) on the editorial Council for the World Marxist Review and was also a member of the organising committee of the 2010 FIFA World Cup that took place in South Africa.

He was the chairman of the board of the Mali Timbuktu Manuscripts Trust as well as a chairman of the board of trustees of the South African Democracy Education Trust and the former member of the national executive committee of the ANC.

After leaving the government in 2008, he launched a South African monthly journal named The Thinker which was later taken over by the University of Johannesburg.

However, his political career had started decades before, when in 1958 he became a member of the Transvaal Indian youth congress.

He was arrested in 1962 for organising a strike after the ANC was banned and went into exile, continuing his work for the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the ANC.

Pahad was credited as being a prominent member of cabinet under Mbeki, influential in formulating policy.