MUZAFFARABAD: Sardar Mohammad Siab Khalid, a former speaker of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly and sitting member of the AJK Council, passed away in Poonch on Monday – six days before his 83rd anniversary.

Mr Khalid, who was elected Legislative Assembly member (MLA) five times between 1986 and 2011, had suffered a stroke some time ago and was receiving regular medical treatment in Rawalakot and Rawalpindi.

On Sunday night, he returned from Rawalpindi to Chirroti Pachiot village on the outskirts of Rawalakot where he breathed his last at around 4pm on Monday.

A law graduate, Mr Khalid started taking part in politics from the platform of Muslim Conference (MC) from mid 1960s.

In 1985, when the MC formed its government with Sardar Sikandar Hayat as prime minister, it had a very narrow difference with the combined opposition.Perhaps in 1986, through a constitutional amendment, the ruling party added six special seats to the assembly’s strength and got Mr Khalid elected against the one reserved for technocrats. In 1991, when the MC regained power, Mr Khalid was once again elected against the same special seat. He also held the ministerial berth in the government led by Sardar Abdul Qayyum.

In 2001, Mr Khalid returned as MLA for the first time in direct elections swept by the MC. He was made Legislative Assembly speaker. He lost the 2006 general elections to Sardar Khalid Ibrahim of JKPP. However, when the latter resigned from his seat in Jan 2009, Mr Khalid was elected in by-poll and briefly served as minister in Raja Farooq Haider and Sardar Attique-led governments over the next one and half years.

He also returned as MLA in 2011 general elections as an MC nominee and sat on opposition benches along with the PML-N. In 2016, the MC did not give him the party ticket and preferred Sardar Saghir Chughtai, the paternal uncle of sitting AJK prime minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas, over him, who clinched victory.

Mr Khalid resigned from the MC and joined the PML-N. However, ahead of the 2021 elections, Mr Ilyas persuaded him to support the PTI, which he did. In return, Mr Ilyas got him elected as one the six members of the virtually defunct AJK Council in 2022.

Expressing grief, PM Ilyas said in Mr Khalid’s death Poonch had been deprived of a distinguished politician.

Funeral prayers of Mr Khalid will be held on Tuesday at 12:30pm at Khan Ashraf Khan Stadium Rawalakot and later at 3:30pm in Chirroti Pachiot village, where he will be laid to rest.

Meanwhile, the AJK government on Monday postponed a grand reception by Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas in the honour of newly-elected leaders of the local bodies until the first week of April, citing some “unavoidable reasons”.

The reception was scheduled for Wednesday in Jinnah Convention Centre Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2023