HYDERABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party Vice Chair­man Makhdoom Amin Fahim died in a private hospital in Karachi on Saturday. He was 76.

He was laid to rest near the grave of his father Makhdoom Mohammad Zaman Talibul Maula in the shrine of Makhdoom Sarwar Nooh in Hala, Matiari district.

Prominent among those who attended the funeral were PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf.

Amin Fahim, who was diagnosed with cancer after a lump surgery he underwent in Berlin, Germany, was brought to Karachi on Oct 26 and taken to a private hospital where he remained till his death.

During his stay in London, he underwent four cycles of chemotherapy and was to travel to the US but doctors did not allow it because of his frail condition.

A pall of gloom hung over Matiari when the news of the death of Amin Fahim, the 18th custodian of the shrine of Makhdoom Sarwar Nooh, reached there. He was the spiritual head of Sarwari Jamaat that has millions of followers in the country and abroad.

Our Staff Reporter in Islamabad adds: PPP Co-Chairman Asif Zardari has paid glowing tribute to Makhdoom Amin Fahim, saying he was a pillar of strength of the party, a steadfast political loyalist and a person of great dignity and grace whom adversities failed to shake. His death has created a void that will be hard to fill for a long time.

Gifted with innumerable qualities of head and heart and possessing pleasing mannerism, Amin Fahim commanded respect ... throughout the country among people of all shades of political persuasion, he said.

Ever since his father Makhdoom Talibul Maula hosted the first PPP convention in Sindh at his house in Hala in the seventies, Amin Fahim remained loyal to the party through thick and thin, Mr Zardari said.

When the prophets of gloom and doom thrived on predicting his imminent exit from the PPP, Amin Fahim silenced them with a one-liner, “Amin Fahim and PPP are inseparable”, he recalled.

“Death is the greatest reality of life and every one must face it one day. During his last days, Makhdoom Amin Fahim appeared fully prepared to face this reality with equanimity and courage that will inspire many,” Mr Zardari said.

Senator Sherry Rehman, Vice President of PPP, said in her condolence message, “Today, the party lost a most reliable confidant, the most distinguished of politicians and the best of human beings”.

She expressed profound grief over the death of her trustworthy colleague and offered her condolences and sympathies to the bereaved family and PPP workers.

Published in Dawn, November 22nd, 2015