Former Sindh governor and veteran PPP leader Kamaluddin Azfar passed away in Karachi on Monday, according to his family and party officials.

PPP Sindh Secretary General Senator Waqar Mehdi told Dawn.com that Azfar had been admitted to Ziauddin Hospital, where he breathed his last.

Mehdi said Azfar’s funeral prayers would likely be decided after the arrival of his children from abroad.

Azfar was close aide of former premier Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

He also served as PPP Karachi president and was once known as the “son of Karachi”.

The veteran leader was instrumental in constructing apartments for lower-income communities in Karachi’s Lines Area.

Azfar was a former senator and relinquished his senatorship when he was appointed Sindh governor in 1995 by ex-premier Benazir Bhutto.

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah expressed sorrow at Azfar’s demise, calling him a “wise politician.”

“Your political services will be remembered,” Murad said of Azfar, who also held the post of finance minister, according to a statement from the minister’s office.

PPP Senator Sherry Rehman said she was “grieved” by Azfar’s passing.

“He served in many positions including Governor Sindh, and was a well known activist as well as politician from Karachi, who worked closely with Shaheed Benazir Bhutto on local government policies among other initiatives.

“Prayers for his family and loved ones in this moment of loss,” she said in a post on X.

The Karachi Literature Festival, which hosted Azfar as a speaker multiple times, called him a well-known lawyer, writer and political figure.

“Educated at Government College, Lahore, and Balliol College, Oxford, he was called to the Bar at the Inner temple, London.”

Upon returning to Pakistan, he established his law practice in Karachi.

“As a writer, Barrister Azfar has mostly written on issues concerning economics, history and politics. He was Research Assistant to Nobel Prize Winning Economist Gunnar Myrdal on his magnum opus The Asian Drama: 1960-63.

“His later publications have included The Chinese Synthesis (1975), Pakistan: Political and Constitutional Dilemmas (1987), an anthology titled Pakistan under the Military (1991), Asian Drama Revisited (1992), Good Governance (1994), Discovery of Pakistan (2005), and, most recently, Waters of Lahore (2014),” KLF said in a description on him.

Azfar has held key offices, such as Sindh minister for finance, planning and development, federal minister for local government and rural development, and special assistant to the prime minister.

More to follow