LAHORE, Dec 8: Former attorney-general Chaudhry Muhammad Farooq died in Lahore in the early hours on Saturday.
He had been suffering from pancreatic cancer for the last about three months.
Chaudhry Farooq was the eldest son of former Lahore High Court judge Chaudhry Muhammad Siddique and brother of Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday and former PML MNA from Toba Tek Singh, Asadur Rehman. He is survived by two sons, Advocate Raza Farooq and Muhammad Aurangzeb, an ABN-Amro executive posted at Amsterdam, and three daughters, besides an ailing wife.
His funeral prayers will be held at his residence at 69-J, Model Town, Lahore, at 2pm on Sunday to enable his son to participate in his burial. Qul and Quran Khwani will be held at 3pm on Monday.
Chaudhry Farooq held the AG’s office twice — during the shortlived restoration of the Nawaz Sharif government in 1993 and then on its induction after the 1997 general election. He was also president of the PML Lawyers’ Forum.
From 1993 to 1996, he waged a valiant legal battle in defence of the then leader of the opposition, attracting contempt notices in the process. The proceedings were dropped before his assumption of the AG’s office.
His death was widely mourned in legal circles. LHC Chief Justice Falak Sher visited his residence early Saturday morning to condole with the bereaved family, followed by a number of serving and retired superior court judges and leading lawyers. Barrister Ijaz Husain Batalvi, who had been his teacher at the Punjab University Law College, recalled his interest in sports, particularly tennis. Farooq later rose to be president of the Pakistan Lawn Tennis Federation.
