GILGIT: Veteran politician and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Gilgit-Baltistan chapter president Syed Jaffar Shah, 75, passed away in an Islamabad hospital on Sunday.

He was infected with Covid-19 last month and was admitted to a private hospital in the federal capital. Family sources said from last two days, his health had started deteriorating as coronavirus had affected his lungs and heart.

They said Jaffar Shah was also a cancer survivor.

The family sources said his body would be shifted to Gilgit from Islamabad on Monday (today), where he would be laid to rest in his ancestral graveyard in Jalalabad.

The family said Jaffar Shah left behind a widow, two sons and two daughters to mourn his death.

The deceased was elected member of the then Northern Areas Council three times. He had joined Pakistan Peoples Party in late 80s, and held the post of the party president from 2005 to 2012. From 2012 to 2016, he served as judge of the GB Supreme Appellate Court.

After retirement from judiciary, he joined the PTI, and was made the party’s GB president in 2019.

Jaffar Shah was the PTI candidate for the upcoming GB Assembly elections from Gilgit. He was also the party’s strong candidate for the slot of the region’s chief minister.

GB Governor Raja Jalal Hussain Maqpoon, caretaker Chief Minister Mir Afzal, caretaker ministers and political and religious parties’ leaders expressed grief over the demise of the senior politician. They offered condolences with the bereaved family.

Following the senior politician’s death, the PTI and the PPP announced to suspend their political activities for next three days.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2020