Veteran politician Ilyas Bilour passes away

PESHAWAR: Veteran politician, former senator and central leader of the business community Ilyas Ahmad Bilour breathed his last at a hospital in Islamabad on Saturday.

According to his family members, Ilyas Bilour had been admitted to the hospital for the last several days for kidney treatment. His funeral prayer will be offered at 2pm in Wazir Bagh locality, Peshawar, today (Sunday). He will be laid to rest at his ancestral graveyard in the city.

Ilyas Ahmad Bilour, 84, was the brother of former federal minister and central leader of Awami National Party Ghulam Ahmad Bilour and late Bashir Ahmad Bilour, who was a former provincial minister. He was elected to the Senate of Pakistan on the ANP ticket from 2012 to 2018 on a technocrat seat and also remained the president of businessmen community in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Pakistan. His panel (Ilyas Bilour group) had won elections of the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry last month in Peshawar.

During his political career, Ilyas Bilour served in various capacities, including vice-president of the Standing Committee on Sustainable Development, Finance and Trade for Asia Pacific and Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry. As a businessman, apart from being a life member of SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Ilyas Bilour also served as Pak-Asia Business Council chairman and was twice elected as the president of Indo-Pak Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

President Asif Ali Zardari, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi and Awami National Party President Senator Aimal Wali Khan in their separate condolence messages termed the death of Ilyas Bilour an irreparable loss for his party, family and businessmen community.

Bilour was born into a political family on July 1, 1940 in Peshawar from where he got his early education, earning his Faculty of Arts degree from the Edwardes College Peshawar.

He held a degree of Bachelor of Arts which he received from the University of Karachi in 1969. He also held the degree of Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Marketing, which he obtained from Al Khair University, Azad Jammu Kashmir in 1999.