MUZAFFARABAD: Veteran Kashmiri leader and chief of Jammu Kashmir Peoples Party (JKPP) Sardar Khalid Ibrahim died of brain haemorrhage on Sunday, plunging his family and friends into gloom. He was 71.

Mr Ibrahim is survived by his wife and two sons and as many daughters.

On Saturday night, he was struck by brain haemorrhage at his Islamabad residence. He was rushed to a hospital where he died on Sunday morning.

Funeral for JKPP chief set for today

His body was taken to Rawalakot in a caravan of hundreds of vehicles for burial on Monday, which has been declared by the AJK government as closed holiday to mourn his death.

Mr Ibrahim’s spouse is a close relative of former presi­dent Gen Ayub Khan. One of his sisters in law — Naureen Ibrahim — is a PTI MNA on reserved seats for women.

A 5-time AJK Legislative Assembly member, Mr Ibra­him was born on Nov 5, 1947, in Kot Mattay Khan on the outskirts of Rawalakot to Ms Zaib-un-Nisa and Sardar Muhammad Ibrahim Khan, the founding president of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

He started his political career in late 70s from the platform of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) but right from the beginning was known for his straightforward stance on any issue, even if it would cost him dear politically. One particular incident of mid 80’s was its glaring example.

It was in the first week of November 1986 when late Ms Benazir Bhutto was touring Poonch district with Mr Ibrahim at the wheels. At some particular spot, a large number of women had gathered to greet Ms Bhutto and when Mr Ibrahim asked her to address them, she declined allegedly maintaining that it was not part of her pre-determined engagements. This led to a brief argument between the two and Mr Ibrahim left the driving seat in protest, to the bafflement of Ms Bhutto.

Later, both were reconciled by Mr Ibrahim’s father at his residence, where Ms Bhutto had stayed.

It was perhaps one of the reasons that when the PPP came in a position to form its government in AJK in 1990, the party’s central leadership ignored Mr Ibrahim’s father and party’s regional president and instead chose Raja Mumtaz Hussain Rathore for the slot of the prime minister.

The differences with the PPP leadership grew so big in the following days and months that Mr Ibrahim and his supporters formed their own party by the name of JKPP in November 1990 with sword as its election symbol.

Ironically Mr Rathore dissolved that assembly in less than a year, paving the way for fresh elections in 1991.

Mr Ibrahim won fresh elections as well but sacrificed his assembly seat in protest against the passage of a law that had allowed appointment of ruling Muslim Conference (MC) activists against gazetted posts in AJK while bypassing the Public Service Commission.

That law was later struck down by superior courts.

Over the past 12 years, whenever he was not an assembly member, he never claimed this pension. Similarly, he had also disagreed with the hefty increase in the salary and perks and privileges of MLAs, maintaining that the emoluments they already received were enough in view of the number of sittings — hardly 25 — in a calendar year.

Of late, Mr Ibrahim was at war with the AJK Supreme Court after his remarks on the floor of the assembly about the appointment of five High Court judges. He had criticised AJK apex court chief justice in this regard.

Ever since, the apex court had been summoning him to clarify his remarks, but he had made it clear through media that he would not give any clarification and would prefer to go behind the bars. Lately, the court had twice issued his bail-able arrest warrants to bow him down but to no avail.

Published in Dawn, November 5th, 2018