Ex-president Ishaq Khan dies at 91 after long illness

Islamabad: Pakistan's former president Ghulam Ishaq Khan died yesterday in Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier Province (NWFP), after a prolonged illness. He was 91.

Khan, who started his career as a civil servant after the partition of the sub-continent in 1947, was the country's president from 1988 to 1993.

Khan's son-in-law, Arfan Ullah Murwat, said the former Pakistani president, who came to power following the 1988 death of military dictator Gen Zia ul Haq in a mysterious plane crash, had been ill for the past three months.

Khan died in the northern city of Peshawar, where he spent most of his life, Murwat said. His funeral was to be held later yesterday in Peshawar.

"He was suffering from pneumonia, and it was the cause of his death," Murwat told The Associated Press in Peshawar.

"He [Khan] was a man of integrity," said another son-in-law, Anwar Saifullah. "He was an honest person, and he never gave any undue favour to anyone."

A large number of people attended his funeral in Peshawar.

President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz expressed deep grief in separate messages to the family of the deceased and lauded his services to the nation.

Upright

"He was an honest, upright person and dedicated to the service of Pakistan," President Musharraf said.

The prime minister said said Ishaq Khan's contributions to Pakistan would be long remembered. Hailing from the Ismail Khel area of Bannu district of NWFP, he was one of the most experienced and reputed bureaucrats of the country.

Born on February 22 in 1915, Ishaq Khan was known as an honest, self-made person whose eventful career was not tainted by any corruption scandal.

After graduating from the Punjab University in 1940 he was selected in the civil service. He served in important positions in the frontier province.

Information secretary

When Pakistan came into being, Ishaq Khan was appointed information secretary at the centre. In 1961 he became chairman of Water and Power Development Authority. Later he served as secretary finance, secretary cabinet division, governor of the State Bank and secretary defence.

He also was the first Pakistani to hold the post of secretary general in chief in the government in 1978.

Ishaq Khan rose to the office of finance minister and was decorated with high civilian awards of Sitara-e-Pakistan and Hilal-e-Pakistan. He became a member of the Senate, the upper house of parliament, and was elected its chairman.

In 1988 he took over as president after the death of Gen Zia. Following the general election he was elected president with the support of the Pakistan Peoples Party and Islami Jamhoori Ittehad [Islamic Democratic Front].

His presidential tenure was however marked by dismissals of the elected governments of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif on charges of corruption. His tussle with Sharif led to the downfall of both.

After leaving the presidency, Ishaq Khan spent a quiet life and kept away from the media.

Higher learning

He established Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering and Technology, one of Pakistan's best institutions of higher learning at Topi in the frontier province.

Khan, a career bureaucrat, was a close ally of Gen Zia and held the post of chairman of Pakistan's Senate when Gen Zia was killed in a plane crash in eastern Pakistan along with then US Ambassador Arnold L. Raphel and several top Pakistani generals.

Regarded as a strong-willed figure, Khan worked alongside former prime ministers Benazir and Sharif but dismissed the governments led by both in 1990 and 1993 respectively on charges of corruption and mismanagement. The row between Khan and Sharif continued following a subsequent Supreme Court decision that reinstated Sharif's government.

Khan, an ethnic-Pashtun born in northwestern Pakistan's Bannu district, is survived by his wife, four daughters and one son.