KARACHI: Rashid Rabbani, special assistant to the Sindh chief minister and senior leader of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) died on Thursday after an illness following post-coronavirus complications after recovering from Covid-19 in May 2020, his party and friends said. He was 68.

They said that Mr Rabbani was admitted to a private hospital on September 28 after complaints of fever and severe cough but his condition deteriorated, pushing his family and friends to move him to another private hospital in Clifton.

“He was treated at high [dependency] unit of the hospital for three days and then at intensive care unit for two days,” said Special Assistant to CM and PPP Sindh general secretary Waqar Mehdi. “Finally he was put on ventilator where he survived seven days. He remained loyal with the party for some five decades and despite so many hardships, imprisonment and threat to life and family, he stood firm with ideology of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.”

Condolence messages poured in over his demise from different segments of society. Apart from Sindh Governor Imran Ismail and Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari also expressed his sorrow and said that the party had lost a determined and ideological leader. Calling him a front-line soldier, he paid tribute to the deceased leader for his struggle against dictators, enduring the hardships of imprisonment.

The PPP announced dedicating the Oct 18 rally to late Rabbani and three-day mourning over his demise.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2020