Eminent lawyer, rights activist Asma Jahangir passes away

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PakistanToday
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12
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LAHORE: Eminent lawyer and human rights activist Asma Jahangir passed away on Sunday in Lahore. She was 66.

Her spokesperson said Jahangir was taken to a private hospital on Ferozepur Road after suffering a cardiac arrest today where she breathed her last.

Details regarding her funeral prayers and last rites have not been made public as yet.

Jahangir was born in Lahore in January 1952.

She received a Bachelors’ degree from Kinnaird College and an LLB from Punjab University. She was called to the Lahore High Court in 1980 and to the Supreme Court in 1982 and later went on to become the first woman to serve as president of the Supreme Court Bar Association.

She became a democracy activist and was jailed in 1983 for participating in the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy which agitated against military dictator Ziaul Haq’s regime.

She was also active in the 2007 Lawyers’ Movement, for which she was put under house arrest.

She co-founded the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and the Women’s Action Forum.

She received Hilal-e-Imtiaz in 2010 and a Sitara-e-Imtiaz. She was also awarded a UNESCO/Bilbao Prize for the Promotion of a Culture of Human Rights and an Officier de la Légion d’honneur by France.

She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005

She worked closely with her sister Hina Jilani on many of her endeavours.

She was known for taking up court cases of victimised and marginalised sections of society, as well as speaking against human rights violations.

An author and a staunch activist for democracy, Jahangir received several accolades for her work on human rights.

Jahangir also remained the special rapporteur on human rights for the United Nations.

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12 COMMENTS

  1. Pakistan has lost a beacon of hope and freedom for the down trodden..Yes she was unpaltable to a few but the people loved her..Let us give her a funeral she deserves.RIP.

  8. ” Man may come and man may go but I go on for ever” was a poetry about ‘ The brook’. ILIR. We all have to one day but few leave an impact on the society – particularly like ours. It is a bad year for Pakistan said Anwar Maqsood. Today it is Asma and Qazi Wajid – who next ? Life goes on. This is why says the Holy book to avail this God given opportunity for the best in life here and thereafter.

  9. Certainly a great loss for Pakistan. We need many more such upright persons but unfortunately today I don’t see anyone like her.

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