Veteran politician and founding member of Pakistan People’sParty (PPP) Mairaj Muhammad Khan passed away in Karachi early Friday. He was 77.
According to South Punjab News, the senior politician was hospitalised for respiratory problems at a private medical facility in Karachi.
His funeral prayers would be offered later in the day.
A close associate of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Mairaj had been an active participant in many of the important events that shaped our country in its formative years.Z.A Bhutto called him his left arm and Ghulam Mustafa Khar as right hand.
Voice of dissent
He was a key player in the movement that led to the formation of the PPP, the movement against General Ayub Khan in 1968, which was sparked off by NSF-led students, as well as the movement for the restoration of democracy (MRD) against General Ziaul Haq from its formation in 1981 until it culminated in 1988.
He had been through it all; Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan, the dismemberment of Pakistan, the Bhutto years, General Zia and his dictatorship and the return to democracy in 2008. The former federal minister was even associated with Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf for five years (Dec 1997 to 2003 April) and left when his patience was completely exhausted.
In his later years, more than a politician, Mairaj enjoyed the position of an elder statesman.
