LAHORE, Feb 18: PPP founder member diehard Shahnawaz Bhatti died here of a cardiac arrest on Wednesday. He was 55. He was the elder brother of Dawn photographer Tariq Mehmood and Khalid Mehmood, a Nila Gumbad trader. Mr Bhatti was buried in the Miani Sahib graveyard in the evening.

Funeral prayers for him were attended by a large number of relatives, friends and party comrades like Mian Misbahur Rehman, Haji Azizur Rehman Chann, Munir Ahmad Khan and Naveed Chaudhry.

Mr Bhatti had contested the first local government elections held by the Zia regime in 1979 as an Awam Dost candidate from a Walled City constituency. He became a member of the then Lahore Metropolitan Corporation by defeating his closest rival having the official backing with a big margin.

He was arrested along with many of his comrades who were also elected councillors as Awam Dost candidates. They were barred from attending the first session of the then MCL.

He was later arrested for publishing an Awam Dost Magazine containing material against the then martial law government and was sentenced to 14 years of rigorous imprisonment with lashes by a military court.

Mr Bhatti was imprisoned in the Lahore Fort where he was tortured. He was released after three years imprisonment during which he contracted various ailments.

He suffered a massive heart attack some years ago. Doctors refused to operate him because he was a chronic diabetic. Mr Bhatti belonged to Walled City's Tehsil Bazaar and was loved by the young and the old.

He was a Bhutto lover and would become emotional only when a reference to him was made. Qul will be held at the Jamia Masjid of Neelum Block, Iqbal Town, near his brother's residence at 3pm on Thursday.