Former president and Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) leader Mamnoon Hussain died in Karachi on Wednesday after a battle with cancer. He was 80.
He served as the 12th president of Pakistan between September 2013 and September 2018. He had replaced Asif Ali Zardari and was succeeded by Arif Alvi.
He was diagnosed with cancer in February last year and was under treatment at a private hospital, according to his former coordinator and PML-N Sindh additional secretary general Chaudhry Tariq.
Mamnoon Hussain has left behind a widow and three sons. The time and place of his funeral prayers will be announced later, Tariq said.
Mamnoon Hussain was born in 1940 in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, in British India. His family migrated to Pakistan in 1947 at the time of partition.
He graduated from the Institute of Business Administration in Karachi in 1965. He served as the head of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
He had been an active member of the PML-N and served as governor of Sindh from June to October 1999 when the Nawaz Sharif’s government was overthrown by the-then army chief General Pervez Musharraf.
He had previously served as an adviser to the-then chief minister of the province, Liaquat Jatoi.
After the military coup, Mamnoon Hussain firmly stood with Nawaz Sharif when a large number of PML-N leaders abandoned their party and formed PML-Q.
In 2002, he contested the elections on the PML-N ticket from Karachi’s then NA-250 constituency but remained unsuccessful.
President Dr Arif Alvi expressed his condolence over the death of Mamnoon Hussain.
Meanwhile, condolences from the PML-N, political parties and other leaders started pouring in.
Jamaat-e-Islami chief Sirajul Haq and JUI-F’s Maulana Fazlur Rehman also expressed their sorrow on his demise.
“We are deeply saddened over the death of former president of Pakistan Mamnoon Hussain. He was a sincere man who served Pakistan with utmost sincerity. May Allah Almighty grant him a place in the tide of mercy,” said PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz.
Sindh Governor Imran Ismail, PML-N’s MNA Kheal Das Kohistani, PPP’s senior leader Qaim Ali Shah, provincial minister Ismail Rahoo, Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Senator Faisal Subzwari, Pak Sarzameen Party chief Syed Mustafa Kamal and several other politicians also expressed their condolences over the demise of Mamnoon.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan, Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Opposition Leader in the Natonal Assembly Shehbaz Sharif and others expressed grief over the sad demise of former president Mamnoon Hussain.
