PESHAWAR, May 18: A prominent advocate and Pakhtun nationalist leader Barrister Baachaa expired here at a local hospital on Saturday morning. He was 72.

The deceased was laid to rest at his ancestral village of Dag Ismailkhel in Nowshera. His funeral was attended by lawyers, relatives and friends in large numbers. He has left behind a widow and five children, including a son and four daughters.

His son Batoor Baryalai Baacha told Dawn his father had a fall at his residence and had suffered head injury three days ago following which he was shifted to North West Surgical Hospital where he was operated for head trauma.

Barrister Baachaa, known for his short and crispy letters to different national dailies, was a known face of the lawyers’ movement of 2007 and 2008. During that movement he was also arrested along with dozens of other lawyers and remained imprisoned for 13 days.

Barrister Baachaa was a known Pakhtun nationalist and had remained attached with ANP. Following the May 11 general elections he had released a statement to the media wherein he had held the policies of ANP responsible for its election defeat.

The deceased was known for opposing military rulers from Ayub Khan up to Pervez Musharraf. Recently, after the return of Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf to the country he had filed a writ petition in the Peshawar High Court praying that a case of high treason should be registered against him for twice suspending the constitution and imposing emergencies.

Barrister Baachaa was born in 1941 in Dag Ismailkhel near Pabbi town in Nowshera. Following his matriculation Barrister Baachaa passed his intermediate examination from historical Islamia College Peshawar in 1959 where he was also elected president of the Khyber Union, a prestigious student union. He did his graduation from the same college following which he got admission in Khyber Law College, University of Peshawar.

Meanwhile, President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Justice (retd) Mir Hazar Khan Khoso expressed profound grief and sorrow over the demise Barrister Baachaa. Lauding the services of the barrister, the president said the deceased was a self-made man of courage and conviction, a prominent lawyer, a human rights activist and a great champion of democratic values. —Bureau Report