ISLAMABAD: Senior diplomat and politician Muhammd Akram Zaki passed away in Islamabad at the age of 87 on Thursday.
He was admitted to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences’ (PIMS) cardiac care unit (CCU) at about 12:00 noon in critical condition and breathed his last at 5:35 pm. He was a cardiac patient and had a history of cardiac diseases. He had undergone an angiography in 1993. Later on, he had an open heart surgery (CABG) in 2006 in PIMS.
Zaki was born on October 27, 1931. He was a senior leader of the Pakistan Muslim League and had served as the chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs. He had also served as Pakistan’s ambassador to China, Nigeria, the Philippines and the United States.
Zaki also worked as the secretary general and minister of state for foreign affairs during his long career with the Foreign Service that spanned the reigns of ZA Bhutto and Gen Ziaul Haq.
He had been an outstanding career diplomat who had to his credit vast and varied diplomatic experience of nearly 40 years starting from 1954. Even before joining the Foreign Service in 1954, Zaki had been actively associated with the Pakistan Muslim League and earlier with the Pakistan Movement.
Zaki had been elected member of the Senate from Islamabad for a six-year term (March 21, 1997 to March 20, 2002). He remained associated with the Pakistan Muslim League, of which he had been an active member since his retirement from the Foreign Service in December 1993, concluding a distinguished diplomatic career from 1954 to 1993.