ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Sunday expressed condolences over the death of US senator John McCain.
“Thoughts and prayers of the people of Pakistan are with the family and friends of Senator McCain,” a Foreign Office statement read.
“Senator John McCain had an illustrious military and public service career and was admired across the spectrum of US politics as a man of integrity and a champion of civility.”
“As Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Senator McCain always stood for strong Pakistan-US relations and a cooperative approach for promoting peace and building stability in the region. He will be greatly missed in Pakistan,” the statement added.
The US senator from Arizona died on Saturday night at the age of 81 after fighting against brain cancer since July last year.
Alternatively affable and cantankerous, McCain had been in the public eye since the 1960s when, as a naval aviator, he was shot down during the Vietnam War and tortured by his North Vietnamese communist captors during 5-1/2 years as a prisoner.
He was edged out by George W Bush for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000 but became his party’s White House candidate eight years later. After gambling on political neophyte Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate, McCain lost in 2008 to Democrat Barack Obama, who became the first black US president.
McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, remained prominent during and after the last White House race as both a frequent critic and target of his fellow Republican Trump, who was elected president in November 2016.
McCain was born on August 29, 1936, at an American naval installation in the Panama Canal Zone – US territory at the time – where his father was stationed.
He acknowledged he was a “smart ass” during his years at the US Naval Academy and graduated fifth from the bottom of his class.
McCain divorced his wife Carol after 15 years of marriage in 1980 and weeks later married the former Cindy Henley, daughter of a wealthy beer distributor in Arizona.
A dark period for McCain came as one of the “Keating Five” group of senators accused of improperly intervening with federal regulators to help political contributor and bank executive Charles Keating, whose Lincoln Savings and Loan failed in 1989 at a cost to taxpayers of $3.4 billion.
McCain was cleared of wrongdoing in 1991 but the Senate Ethics Committee rebuked him for poor judgment.
On July 25, 2017, McCain delivered a Senate floor speech not long after his cancer diagnosis that was widely seen as his farewell address. It included a call to fellow Republicans to stand up to Trump and for all lawmakers to work together to keep America as a “beacon of liberty” in the world.
“That is the cause that binds us and is so much more powerful and worthy than the small differences that divide us,” McCain said.