KARACHI, June 17: Fauzia Wahab, a central leader of Pakistan People’s Party, who had been fighting for the past three weeks against complications arising out of successive surgeries, passed away on Sunday. She was 56.

Her funeral prayer will be held on Monday after Zuhr prayers at Sultan Masjid in Defence and she will be laid to rest in the Gizri graveyard.

Ms Wahab, a People’s Party MNA and special secretary at the presidency, was admitted to the OMI hospital on May 25 for a gallbladder operation. After two operations she was put on ventilator for convalescence.

A board of senior doctors comprising Prof Badar Siddiqui, Prof Tipu Sultan, Prof Shafiqur Rehman and Prof Tasleem Ahsan was looking after her. On Saturday night, she went into a coma. She died at around 8pm on Sunday.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and many other party colleagues visited the hospital a couple of hours before her death.

Ms Wahab got her initial education in Bonn, Germany, where her father was posted in the Pakistan Embassy.

She did her BA (Hons) and MA in International Relations from the University of Karachi.

During her education at the university she was an active member of the Progressive Students’ Front and was elected its joint secretary.

In 1978, she married journalist Wahab Siddiqui and they had four children.

After the death of Mr Siddiqui she remained devoted to her children. When her children had grown up she married Dr Athar Hussain, a heart specialist.

She leaves behind her husband, three sons and a daughter and scores of party comrades to mourn her death.

Ms Wahab started her political career in 1979 when she contested local bodies election on a PPP ticket.

In 1994, she joined the PPP’s advisory committee in Sindh as its member and was later given the PPP ticket to contest election from the National Assembly constituency, NA-193.

In 1998, she was made in charge of the PPP’s human rights cell. She also served as information secretary of the party’s Sindh chapter.

Ms Wahab was elected MNA in 2002 on a reserved seat and re-elected in the 2008 elections.

Ms Wahab was given the post of the party’s information secretary after Sherry Rehman stepped down from the office in 2009.

She resigned from the office before Qamar Zaman Kaira was made information secretary.