MARDAN: Former senior provincial minister and founding leader of Pakistan Peoples Party Rahimdad Khan, who died of coronavirus the other day, was laid to rest in his ancestral graveyard in Hatyaan Shergar locality here on Sunday. He was 78.

According to the family and party sources, the veteran politician remained under treatment in privates hospitals, first in Peshawar and then in Islamabad when he was diagnosed with Covide-19.

He breathed his last late on Saturday night. He was survived by three sons and a widow.

His funeral prayer was attended by PPP central general secretary Nayyer Hussain Bukhari, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial president Najamuddin Khan and general secretary Shuja Khan, Awami National Party leader Ghulam Ahmad Bilour and a large number of leaders and activists of PPP besides the area people.

Rahimdad Khan was born on June 10, 1943 in the house of Saifullah Khan of Hatyaan, a remote area of Mardan district.

He had joined the PPP when it was founded by former prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.

He was a member of the PPP central executive committee.

He was elected as deputy speaker of the erstwhile NWFP provincial assembly when he for the first time took part in the 1970 general elections and was declared as winner.

Rahimdad Khan took oath twice as provincial minister and once as senior provincial minister in 1988, 1993 and 2008, respectively.

He lost in the elections in 1990, but in the same year he was made party’s provincial president.

He remained the provincial chief for four years during which he tried his best to strengthen his party.

PPP leaders and activists said that they would always remember Rahimdad for the services and sacrifices that he rendered for the party and strengthening of political system in the country.

Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2021