Zardari's father, aged 81, dies after long illness

Islamabad: Hakim Ali Zardari, father of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, died yesterday after a protracted illness at the age of 81.

He breathed his last at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad where he had been under treatment. He had been on a ventilator since mid-March.

Zardari was a member of the Pakistan Peoples Party, the country's largest political party. He entered politics in 1965, helping in the campaign of Fatima Jinnah, the sister of the founder of Pakistan, against the then military dictator Gen Ayub Khan.

He was MP thrice and also served as a federal minister twice. He will be buried at the ancestral cemetry in Nawabshah in Sindh.

— With inputs from AP