Karachi: Renowned comedian of Pakistan Umer Sharif, who passed away in Germany last week on his way to the US for treatment, was laid to rest at the shrine of Sufi Saint Abdullah Shah Ghazi in Clifton area of Karachi on Wednesday.
Funeral prayers of Sharif were offered at a park in Clifton area named after him and attended by a large number of general public, his fans, people of show business fraternity especially fellow theatre artists, politicians, and senior authorities. Maulana Basheer Farooqi led the funeral prayers.
Notables among those who attended the funeral prayers included Sindh Governor Imran Ismail, Sindh Information and Labour Minister, Saeed Ghani, Karachi’s Administrator, Barrister Murtaza Wahab, former Karachi mayors Waseem Akhtar and Mustafa Kamal, Special Assistant to Sindh Chief Minister, Waqar Mehdi, Arts Council President, Ahmed Shah, and others. The Chairman of noted non-profit, Saylani Welfare Trust,
The Sindh government’s Auqaf Department granted special permission to bury Sharif at the shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi keeping in view the wish expressed by the veteran artiste during his life.
Earlier in the morning, body of Sharif arrived at Karachi Airport from Munich on a Turkish Airlines flight and received by two sons of the late artiste and Sindh Information Minister. The coffin was draped in the Pakistani flag.
The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) has already named an underpass on Shaheed-e-Millat Road in the city after Sharif. The memorandum of the KMC drafted for the purpose acknowledged that Sharif, who was born in Karachi in 1955, emerged as an uncrowned king of Pakistani theatre as he also performed in television programmes and films. It said that the underpass was being named after the late veteran actor while acknowledging his services for the country.
Sindh Information Minister said the Sindh government later on would also establish an institute in the memory of late Sharif to train new talent in the field of performing arts.
Sharif, accompanied by his wife, started his journey for America on an air ambulance on September 28 but midway he was admitted to a hospital in Germany as his health condition deteriorated.
