LAHORE: Former president of Pakistan Muhammad Rafiq Tarar passed away here on Monday. He was 92.

His funeral prayers were offered at Jamia Ashrafia before his body was taken to his native Gakhar town, over 100km from here, for burial.

President Arif Alvi, Prime Minister Imran Khan, ex-president Asif Ali Zardari, former premier Nawaz Sharif, National Assembly opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and others condoled his death.

Late Tarar was elected 9th president of the country in 1998, securing a record 374 out of 457 votes after Farooq Leghari resigned from the office.

Born in Mandi Bahauddin in 1929, Tarar graduated from Punjab University’s Law College in 1951 and immediately joined the legal profession. He passed competitive exam in 1966 to become a sessions judge.

In 1974, he was appointed as a judge of the Lahore High Court, where he served for 17 years, the last two as its chief justice, before he was elevated to the Supreme Court in 1991 and retired in 1994.

Soon after his retirement, Mr Tarar entered politics and was made legal adviser to the PML-N president Nawaz Sharif. He was elected as a Senator on the PML-N ticket in March 1997, but resigned from the upper house in December, a month before he became president.

He remained president for two and a half years till June 20, 2001 when the then army ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf, who had ousted Nawaz Sharif’s government in October 1999, removed Mr Tarar through the Legal Framework Order.

Slain PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto had, in her address to the Commonwealth Ethnic Bar Association, criticised his nomination for president’s office, saying as part of the LHC bench Mr Tarar had upheld the ouster of her government by then president Ghulam Ishaq Khan.

The Election Commission of Pakistan had rejected Mr Tarar’s candidature over his controversial interview against the then chief justice of Pakistan Sajjad Ali Shah, but thanks to a stay order issued by LHC judge Justice Abdul Qayyum, he contested and won the presidential poll with a thumping majority.In his condolence message, Nawaz Sharif said late Rafiq Tarar had deep affiliation with

the country and the Muslim League (Nawaz). He said there were many good memories of Mr Tarar in his (Sharif’s) heart.

Shehbaz Sharif called on PML-N leader Ataullah Tarar, a grandson of late Rafiq Tarar, to condole his death. He also postponed for a day a meeting of the PML-N’s parliamentary party to pay homage to the departed soul.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2022