Former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, who served under military leader Pervez Musharraf, has died, his family announced.
The 76-year-old died in Rawalpindi on Wednesday after having recently suffered a heart attack, his son Mir Mohamed Khan Jamali said.
Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali was elected prime minister but with limited powers in November 2002, when then-president Musharraf allowed parliamentary elections to take place after taking power in a bloodless 1999 coup.
Musharraf went on to rule the country until 2008, when he was forced to resign after pro-military parties lost parliamentary elections and the country transitioned back to a democracy.
Jamali stepped down in the summer of 2004 after developing differences with the party leadership and with Musharraf, paving the way for one of his cabinet ministers, Shaukat Aziz, to fill the post until the parliamentary election in 2008.
Hailing from an influential political family, Jamali was the first and only prime minister to come from the oil-and-gas-rich province of Balochistan.
He was buried yesterday in his ancestral town of Rojhan Jamali.
President Dr Arif Alvi, Prime Minister Imran Khan and Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa have expressed their deep grief and sorrow over the Jamali’s death.
“Saddened to hear of the passing of Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali. My condolences and prayers go to his family,” Prime Minister Khan wrote on Twitter.
Jamali was a cool-headed politician who, even in the face of hostility, preached peace and avoided confrontation.
Born in Rojhan Jamali on January 1, 1944, his early schooling was in Balochistan, followed by Lawrence College in Murree, and Aitchison College and Government College in Lahore.
He received a master’s in history from the Government College in Lahore.