MUZAFFARABAD: Thousands of people from different walks of life poured onto the two playgrounds in Kotli city and Nakyal on Sunday to pay last respects to veteran Kashmiri leader Sardar Sikandar Hayat at his funerals.

Mr Hayat, who held the office of AJK president once and that of the prime minister twice between 1985 and 2006, had breathed his last on Saturday night owing to cardiac arrest.

AJK Prime Minister Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi had declared a three-day mourning in the state apart from cancelling all political activities, including a ruling PTI’s parliamentary party meeting scheduled to be held on Monday in Kashmir House, Islamabad.

Earlier on Saturday night, Prime Minister Imran Khan also took to Twitter to express his condolences over the demise of Mr Hayat.

Laid to rest in his ancestral graveyard in Nakyal

“Saddened to learn of the passing of Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan, former President of AJK as well as former PM of AJK. His contribution to the Kashmir cause [and] service to the Kashmiri people were invaluable. My prayers [and] condolences go to his family,” he had said.

Separately, National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry, Minister for Kashmir affairs Ali Amin Gandapur, parliamentary Kashmir committee chairman Shehryar Afridi and several other leaders in Pakistan and AJK had also used different social media platforms to express their grief over the passing of Mr Hayat.

At the funerals in Kotli’s ‘Air Ground’, a police contingent presented a salute to his coffin, before a number of leaders spoke about the late leader’s political life and his commitment and contribution to the development of the liberated territory.

“Today we have lost a great personality on this side of the divide,” said AJK President Barrister Sultan Mahmood.

He recalled that his father Chaudhry Noor Hussain and Mr Hayat’s father Sardar Fateh Mohammad Karelvi were among those Muslim Conference leaders who had attended the July 19, 1947 meeting in Srinagar where “accession [of Kashmir] to Pakistan” resolution was adopted.

“He spent his whole life in the service of the people of Azad Kashmir, which we will never forget,” he said.

PM Niazi said the late leader was a development-oriented politician who used his ability to ameliorate the lives of people. He announced the naming of Kotli’s sports stadium and proposed Kashmir Highway along Jhelum River after Mr Hayat.

Prominent among others who spoke on the occasion were Shah Ghulam Qadir from the PML-N, Faisal Mumtaz Rathore from the PPP, former premier Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan, Mirza Shafique Jaral and Malick Nawaz from the Muslim Conference.

Later, the coffin was taken to Nakyal where a second funeral prayer was held. It was attended and addressed among others by former AJK premier and PML-N president Raja Farooq Haider, former president and PPP leader Sardar Yaqoob Khan and PPP legislator from Nakyal Javed Iqbal Badhanvi.

Afterwards, Mr Hayat was laid to rest in the family’s ancestral graveyard in the town.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2021