Iskandar Mirza’s son dies in US

WASHINGTON: Humayun Mirza, the son of Pakistan’s first president, died in Washington, Daily Dawn reported Monday.

He was the only surviving son of the former president.

Born in Pune, India, on Dec 9, 1928, Humayun Mirza breathed his last at his home in Bethesda, Maryland, on the night between June 12 and 13.

“Humayun Mirza was the second of six children of Iskander Mirza and his first wife Rifaat Begum,” the report said, adding that his younger brother, Enver Mirza, had died in a plane crash in 1953.

He was a highly educated person and wrote two books and retired as a senior World Bank official in 1988.

He got his early education from one of India’s finest boarding schools, The Doon School, in Dehradun before moving to the US. He had earned his MBA from Harvard.

His first wife was the daughter of the US ambassador to Pakistan, Horace Hildreth. He later got married to Marilia Mandelli, who is a Brazilian.

In his autobiography, “Son of a President and Heir to a Throne”, published last year Mirza wrote: “My life has been full, I have a loving wife, Marilia, who takes good care of me, and two daughters, Zareen and Samia. I have three brilliant grandchildren”.

According to Dawn, the Mirzas are from a wealthy feudal family in Bengal, with close ties to the British monarchy.

Humayun Mirza’s grandfather, Fateh Ali Mirza belonged to the ruling house of Murshidabad.

He was also a close friend of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.