MUZAFFARABAD, Oct 1: Former deputy speaker of AJK Legislative Assembly and People's Party AJK leader Syed Shaukat Hussain Naqvi was among the people who died in a suspected suicide bomb blast in Sialkot on Friday.

The 49-year-old Naqvi, a prominent lawyer by profession, had gone to Sialkot with his family to see his in-laws after receiving his wife at Islamabad airport on Saturday. Mr Naqvi's wife had returned from Saudi Arabia after performing Umrah, his relative and AJK Council member Syed Mumtaz Naqvi told Dawn.

Mr Naqvi was associated with People's Party from his college life. When the party came in power in AJK, he was appointed assistant superintendent of police through lateral entry scheme. However he was sacked after the PPP governments in Pakistan and the AJK were toppled by the army after two years.

In 1996, he was chosen as member of the AJK Legislative Assembly against a special seat reserved for technocrats. He was elected chairman of Public Accounts Committee.

On June 26, 1998, he was elected deputy speaker and he continued in this position till the last elections in July 2001. He was also PPAJK district Muzaffarabad president since 1990. Mr Naqvi is survived by his wife and two young sons, both students. Family sources said his funeral would be held here on Saturday.