ISLAMABAD, Sept 26: Veteran politician and chief of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan died here in the small hours of Saturday. He was 85.

The Nawabzada passed away at 1.05am, according to the Shifa International Hospital where he was admitted after a heart attack on Tuesday night.

The Nawabzada had arrived in Islamabad from Lahore on Tuesday night to attend a meeting of the heads of component parties of the ARD scheduled for Thursday. A few hours later, he suffered a severe heart attack and was rushed to a private hospital where the doctors, after treating him in emergency, admitted him to the Coronary Care Unit (CCU).

A spokesman for the hospital said that doctors had performed emergency coronary angiography and coronary angioplasty.

On Friday, his condition improved in the morning but it began to deteriorate in the afternoon.

The doctors made attempts to stabilize his condition, but all their efforts failed.

Nawabzada Nasarullah Khan played a very important role in the political history of Pakistan and was famous for making alliances against various governments.

He had recently visited Jeddah and London where he held talks with the former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto.

Sources in the ARD said the alliance chief was about to announce launching of a mass contact drive against the LFO and the president’s uniform from the first week of October. Political circles said it was Nawabzada who brought two arch rivals, PPP and the PML-N, together under the banner of the ARD.