ISLAMABAD, Feb 21: Dr Aslam Effendi, 81, celebrated writer, columnist and advocate of personal freedom, passed away on Monday after developing respiratory complications.

He was the son of the late Afghan prince Sardar Abdur Rehman Khan Effendi, who had thrice declined the offer to take over Afghanistan as monarch and instead recommended his cousin Nadir Shah, father of ex-king Zahir Shah.

Dr Effendi authored three books — How to End All Wars Forever, Hard Facts of History, Economics for the Confused — and numerous articles published in the national and international press and in several periodicals. He also represented the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation in Pakistan which was set up to mobilise international public opinion to try US president Johnson for his war crimes in Vietnam.

Dr Effendi was born on June 5, 1924 at Srinagar, Kashmir. He received his early education at Lawrence College, Murree, and completed his higher secondary studies at St. Joseph College, Baramulla, Kashmir, before joining the Aligarh Muslim University in the mid-40s. Later he proceeded to the US for higher education in 1945 and got his diploma from the Swedish Institute, Chicago, in physical medicine. In 1948, he founded the society for the rehabilitation of handicapped children in Pakistan and identified polio to be the main cause of disability in Pakistani children.

Dr Effendi was laid to rest at the Islamabad Graveyard. Qul will be held at 5pm on Wednesday (February 22) at his residence in Islamabad. He is survived by his only son, Asim Effendi.