Covid-19 claims life of cotton researcher

MULTAN: Noted agricultural scientist and cotton researcher Dr Zahoor Ahmed, 78, Wednesday died from coronavirus at a hospital.

According to his family sources, he was tested positive for the virus and was admitted to hospital where he died. He was a long time Director of Central Cotton Research Institute Multan and devoted his entire life to discovering new cotton seed varieties for the development of cotton.

Dr Zahoor joined CCRI Multan in 1972-79 as Head Entomology and later served as Director of the Institute for a long time from 1979-2002. He retired from service as Director Research in 2004.

He graduated from the then West Pakistan Agriculture University, Faisalabad, and achieved PhD degree from Washington State University, USA. The management of cotton leaf curl virus programme was effectively supervised under his leadership and led to the development of resistant varieties. The research contributions under his tenure were fully recognised at national and international level.