PML-N Senator Irfan Siddiqui passed away on Monday in Islamabad after a brief illness for the past few days.
His family said earlier today that he had not been placed on a ventilator but was admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) due to breathing difficulties. In a statement, the senator’s family said that Siddiqui had been receiving treatment at a local hospital in Islamabad for the past few days due to respiratory distress.
President Asif Ali Zardari extended his condolences on the senator’s passing to his family, according to a statement from the President’s House.
He paid tribute to Senator Siddiqui as someone who had made “immense contributions” to democracy in Pakistan.
Earlier today, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry had said that the PML-N leader had been put on a ventilator after his health had worsened.
“Senior politician and important PML-N leader Siddiqui is extremely unwell. He has been put on a ventilator due to severe illness,” said Chaudhry, who is also a PML-N leader, in a post on social media platform X. He also prayed for the health of the senator.
The development came shortly before a session of the upper house of Parliament was slated to begin to discuss the bill for the 27th Constitutional Amendment. His absence in the Senate may make things difficult for the government, which needs a two-thirds majority to pass the bill.
Siddiqui is the chairman of the Senate’s Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and the PML-N’s parliamentary leader in the Senate.
In 2019, he was arrested at his residence in Islamabad for not informing police while renting out his house under the tenancy law. He was later released on bail.
