LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz MPA Khurram Gulfam passed away at the city’s Services Hospital on Tuesday.

He is survived by a wife, two daughters and a son.

Gulfam, 35, fell into coma two weeks back (on July 9) after a surgery to remove a cyst on his neck. His condition turned critical during the operation and the doctors shifted him to the intensive care unit (ICU) and put him on ventilator.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Shairf expressed deep sorrow over Gulfam’s death and said his services for the party would always be remembered.

Prof Anjum Habib Vohra, the principal of Post Graduate Medical Institute (PGMI), who was heading a medical board formed on the CM’s direction to investigate mysterious fainting of the MPA during a minor medical procedure, had declared him brain dead on July 18.

Mr Vohra said doctors’ negligence as cause of the MPA’s death could not be established. He said blood vessels of the patient had shrunk, restricting blood supply to his brain.

Gulfam was twice elected from PP-162 (Narang Mandi) to the Punjab Assembly. His father had also been elected MPA (1985-88).

Born on Feb 6, 1979, at Sheikhupura, Gulfam received his early education from Aitchison College, and later graduated from the Government College (now GCU), Lahore.

He did his Masters in English in 2001 from the University of Punjab, Lahore, and graduated in law in 2004 from a private college.

He had survived an attempt on his life at the hands of his political rivals in 2007, when he was serving as Muridke tehsil naib nazim. He escaped unhurt in the attack near Fatehwali village but one of his guards was severely injured.

Meanwhile, Punjab Assembly Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal has expressed his grief at the death of the MPA.

FUNERAL: MPA Khurram Gulfam was laid to rest at his native Bohandhary village on Tuesday evening, our Sheikhupura correspondent adds.

His funeral prayers were attended by PML-N leader Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, Speaker Punjab Assembly Rana Iqbal, besides his friends, social and religious figures of the area, traders and a large numbers of other people.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2014