PML-N Senator Irfan Siddiqui passed away on Monday in Islamabad after a brief illness, his son confirmed.

His family earlier today said that he had not been placed on a ventilator but was admitted to an intensive care unit due to breathing difficulties. In a statement, the senator’s family said that Siddiqui had been receiving treatment at a local hospital in Islamabad for the past few days due to respiratory distress.

President Asif Ali Zardari extended his condolences to the senator’s family on their loss, according to a statement from the President’s House. Paying tribute to Senator Siddiqui, President Zardari said the departed had made “immense contributions” to democracy in Pakistan.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also expressed his condolences, saying that Pakistan had lost a thinker, teacher and principled intellectual. In a statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office, he termed Siddiqui an important member of the PML-N, saying that his services to the party would always be remembered.

“His death is a great loss for me, for the academic world and for society,” the premier said.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi also extended his condolences and praised Siddiqui as a “champion of high traditions in both journalism and politics”.

Earlier today, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry had claimed that the PML-N leader had been put on a ventilator after his health had worsened.

“Senior politician and important PML-N leader Siddiqui is extremely unwell. He has been put on a ventilator due to severe illness,” said Chaudhry, who is also a PML-N leader, in a post on social media platform X.

Siddiqui was also the chairman of the Senate’s Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and the PML-N’s parliamentary leader in the Senate.

In 2019, he was arrested at his residence in Islamabad for not informing police while renting out his house under the tenancy law. He was later released on bail.