MUZAFFARABAD/MIRPUR: Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) President Barrister Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry was laid to rest in his native town Chachiyaan in AJK’s Mirpur district on Sunday.
Thousands of people from all walks of life from across AJK and various parts of the country earlier offered funeral prayers of the Kashmir freedom struggle leader at Quaid-e-Azam Cricket Stadium Sunday afternoon.
A contingent of AJK Police presented salute to the coffin of the veteran Kashmiri leader.
Prominent personalities including acting President of AJK Ch Latif Akber, Prime Minister Faisal Mumtaz Rathore, AJK Chief Justice Raja Saeed Akram Khan, Senior Judge AJK Supreme Court Justice Raza Ali Khan and Justice Khalid Yousaf Chaudhry, former prime ministers of AJK Raja Farooq Haider Khan, Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan, Chaudhry Anwar ul Haq and Sardar Yahoob Khan, ex-president of AJK and ex-ambassador of Pakistan to United States of America Sardar Masood Khan, leader of opposition in AJK Legislative Assembly Shah Ghulam Qadir, sitting members of AJK cabinet, ex-ministers including Chaudhry Muhammad Saeed,Chaudhry Rukhsar Ahmed and others of AJK besides high ranking civil and military officials attended the funeral.
Barrister Sultan Mahmood was laid to rest with full state honours and a gun carriage, an honour that was bestowed upon very few people in the history of Pakistan.The gun carriage stands symbolic that this was not a personal farewell, but a national one.
Sultan Mahmood was the fifth person in Pakistan’s 78-year history laid to rest in a gun carriage, and the second political figure next to Father of the Nation Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah who was bestowed with this honour.
Earlier, this honour had been bestowed upon Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, General Zia-ul-Haq, Abdul Sattar Edhi and Mrs Ruth Pfau. A gun carriage funeral is not just a military tradition, but a state’s recognition of an individual’s extraordinary national service.
The gun carriage, national salute, military contingent, and full protocol bear witness to services that cannot be summed up in words. Barrister Sultan Mahmood had breathed his last Saturday evening in an Islamabad hospital after prolonged illness.
