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Nawabzada Khan keels over dead
The grand old man of Pakistani politics, who united the two main opposition parties to confront President Pervez Musharraf, has died. Nawabzada Nasr Allah Khan, 85, died of a heart attack on Saturday, his doctors said.
Khan, who headed the Pakistan Democratic Party, brought together the rival parties of former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif on one platform against Musharrafâs military government. His death has raised concerns over the future of the alliance.
| Be still, my beating heart... |
Bhutto and Sharif, both living in exile, accepted Khan as the chief of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD), after Musharraf led a coup against Sharif in 1999. "It is a serious setback to the alliance," said Farhat Allah Babur, member of the upper house and a spokesman for the Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). "He had kept the two parties with opposing political views together under the ARD," Babur added. The ARD, along with the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal - an alliance of religious parties - regularly protests and boycotts parliament, demanding that Musharraf, who is president and chief of the armed forces, quit one of the two posts. Political analysts say the PPP and Sharif's faction of Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) are likely to find it difficult to replace Khan with someone acceptable to both.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-09-27 |
