Hamid Nawaz laid to rest

LAHORE - Brigadier (r) Hamid Nawaz Khan, father of former Governor Punjab, Shahid Hamid and former Minister for Defence and at present MNA, Zahid Hamid, died here on Monday morning. He was 94. Brig Hamid Nawaz who had been ill over the past few weeks was laid to rest at Mian Mir Sahib Graveyard in the afternoon. His Qul ceremony will be held at 4 pm, and dua at 5pm at 169/C, Lahore Cantt here on Wednesday (tomorrow). A large number of people hailing from military, diplomatic, political, bureaucratic, judiciary and other walks of life attended his Namaz-e-Jenaza held at his residence. They included former Army Chief Jahangir Karamat, former Punjab Governor Lt Gen (r) Khalid Maqbool, former Foreign Secrtary Shamshad Ahmad, former Chairman Wapda Tariq Hameed, former Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri, former Finance Minister Sartaj Aziz, Lahore High Court Chief Justice Sayed Zahid Hussain, Supreme Court Justice Fakir Muhammad Khokhar, LHC Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, Justice Umar Ata Bandial, former Speaker National Assembly Ch Amir Hussain, Dr Pervez Hussain, Zaeem Qadri, Misbahul Haq, Nayar Ali Dada and others. Al-Haj Hamid Nawaz was born in Lahore and his native town was Pasroor. He also served Pakistan as Ambassador for 18 years in the countries namely Thailand (1958-62), Lebanon (1962-66), Algeria (1966-69), Italy (1969-72) and Iran (1972-1975). After retirement he took part in politics and was twice elected Member of the National Assembly in 1977 and 1988. Hamid Nawaz started his career with Commission in the British Army in 1940. While serving in the Army (British, Indian and Pakistan) from that day to 1953, he held some important staff and command appointments which earned him the symbol "PSC" from Staff College, Quetta. During last two years in the army, he served as First Pakistani Military Secretary to the Head of the State, then called Governor General. After that he was transferred to Pakistan Foreign Service. In his diplomatic career, he also served as concurrent ambassador to Pakistan in North Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia (Thailand), Jordon, Cyprus Malta, Albania, Chad and Central African Republic (Algeria). He was also appointed as 'Eminent Person' to the International Cooperation Organisation with ministerial rank. Brig Nawaz led an active life and always made his presence felt in government service, as well as, in politics. Kind hearted, suave and soft spoken, Hamid Nawaz had tremendous love for the country whose prosperity, development and good name in the comity of the nations remained his dream and objective. Though the people like former Prime Minister ZA Bhutto, Malik Miraj Khalid, former Chief Minister Punjab Hanif Ramay, were included in his circle of friends, he had always showed respect and love to others around him, as well as, his servants. He was a staunch admirer of Qauid-e-Azam Muhammad All Jinnah. He was well read and he evinced a maturity and grip on the issues in discussions. Besides that he also had a good literary taste. He was a practicing Muslim who also had good knowledge of the religion. After partition, the recovery of a large of missing persons goes to his credit. May Allah, Almighty rest the departed soul in eternal peace.