Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) leader and former senator Usman Khan Kakar passed away in Karachi at the age of 60. Kakar had been undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Karachi since last week.
Kakar, who hailed from Qila Saifullah district of Balochistan, was the central secretary and provincial president of PkMAP. He remained associated with PkMAP throughout his three-decade-long political career.
Usman Kakar was the second most popular leader of the party after Mehmood Khan Achakzai. Kakar graduated from Quetta’s Law College in 1987. He was affiliated with PkMAP’s student wing during his academic career.
Kakar had remained a member of the Senate from 2015 to 2018. He had also contested the election for the deputy chairman’s slot as a candidate of the joint opposition, but lost.
The cause of death
Kakar’s personal physician, Dr Samad Panezai said he had received a head injury at his residence in Quetta and was shifted to a hospital within 30 minutes where he was operated upon and put on a ventilator.
He was later shifted to Karachi’s Aga Khan University Hospital on a special air ambulance where he passed away earlier today. Panezai said the cause of his death was accumulation of blood in his brain due to the injury.
However, he said, it was not known what caused the injury to Kakar, who had been found by his family lying on a carpet in his drawing room with blood flowing from his head.
‘Mysterious Death’
Opposition members in the Senate raised suspicion over the “sudden death” of PkMAP leader and demanded a parliamentary probe to dig out the truth. Senator Muhammad Akram of the National Party claimed that Kakar would always say that he faced the biggest threat from certain security agencies.
Meanwhile, PPP Senator Saleem Mandviwala said Kakar’s family believed his death was a “murder”. He said doctors were also skeptical about how such profuse bleeding in the head could be caused by a mere fall. He demanded the Sindh and Balochistan governments conduct a thorough investigation into his death.
PPP’s Shahadat Awan also said that doubts were being raised about certain security agencies after the death of Usman Kakar.
JUI-P’s Maulana Attaur Rehman claimed that Usman Khan Kakar had received several threats in the past and now his death was shrouded in mystery. He said it was perceptible until the last time that he will be ‘taken out’ of the way.
He said if someone was involved in the death of Usman Kakar, he should be brought to justice. He also demanded a parliamentary committee to probe the matter. Senator Haji Hidayatullah also voiced his concern on the death of Kakar and sought an investigation into it.
