Ex-president Mamnoon Hussain laid to rest

KARACHI: Former president Mamnoon Hussain was laid to rest on Thursday at a graveyard in the city's Defence Housing Authority Phase 8 neighbourhood, in the presence of several prominent religious and political leaders.

The former president breathed his last at a private hospital in Karachi a day earlier. His son Arsalan Mamnoon said his father had been battling cancer.

The funeral prayers of the former president were offered at Masjid-e-Sultan, led by Mufti Taqi Usmani.

Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, PML-N General Secretary Ahsan Iqbal, former Sindh governor Mohammad Zubair, and PPP's Waqar Mehdi were present, among other political figures.

The former president died at the age of 80 and was undergoing treatment at a private hospital for the last two weeks, his son said.

Hussain was the 12th president of Pakistan, who served from 2013 to 2018 when PML-N was in power. He was one of the most senior PML-N leaders. Originally a businessman, Mamnoon Hussain was born on December 23, 1940, in the Indian city of Agra. He started his political career as a member of the Muslim League in 1969. At the time, he was made the joint secretary of the Karachi chapter of the League, when former minister of state for foreign affairs Zain Noorani was its president.