KATHMANDU: Former Nepal prime minister Sushil Koirala, a veteran politician once jailed for helping to hijack a plane, died in Kathmandu on Tuesday aged 77 after suffering from pneumonia, his doctor said.

Koirala, premier for 20 months until last October, played a pivotal role in drafting a controversial new constitution aimed at unifying the impoverished country following the end in 2006 of a decade-long Maoist insurgency.

He came in for heavy criticism for his government’s sluggish response to a massive earthquake that devastated the Himalayan nation last April and killed nearly 9,000 people. Koirala, who had battled chronic bronchitis and other illnesses, was diagnosed with pneumonia last week, his doctor Kabirnath Yogi said.

“He was taking medicine and was even showing improvement yesterday. But at 11 last night his condition suddenly deteriorated,” said Yogi, an associate professor at Kathmandu’s Teaching Hospital.

He died shortly before 1am before the ambulance arrived, Yogi said.

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2016