Former NA speaker Elahi Bakhsh Soomro passes away

F.P. Report

KARACHI: Former National Assembly speaker Elahi Bakhsh Soomro passed away due to heart failure on Thursday. He was 97.

His body was sent to his hometown Jacobabad.

A day earlier, his wife Parveen Elahi Bakhsh also passed away. The death of husband and wife within a day left the family shattered.

Illustrious career 

Soomro was born in Sindh’s Jacobabad district in 1926. He belonged to the Soomro family settled in Shikarpur which ruled Sindh for many years. He was the son of Maula Bakhsh Soomro and brother of Ahmad Mian Soomro. He got a degree in engineering.

Elahi Bakhsh Soomro became the federal minister for the first time in Gen Ziaul Haq regime. Later, he was elected a member of the National Assembly unopposed in 1985.

When Gen Zia dismissed the government of Muhammad Khan Junejo and formed a supervisory cabinet, Soomro was nominated information and broadcasting minister.

In the 1990 and 1997 elections, he was elected MNA on the ticket of the Pakistan Muslim League. He was also elected member Senate several times in different periods.

Soomro remained close to several presidents and prime ministers. It is said that he was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s childhood friend. Former PM (the late) Benazir Bhutto used to call him “uncle”.

Moreover, he was also a close friend of PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif and the late Ghulam Ishaq Khan.

He was also elected the Pakistan Engineering Council chairman for a three-year term and before his death, he was chancellor of the Institute of Business Management in Karachi.

He also served as the Karachi Development Authority director general. He remained rector of institutions including Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering, Sciences and Technology, the NED University of Engineering and Technology, and the Jinnah Medical and Dental College.