Former bureaucrat Roedad Khan has passed away at the age of 101.
Mardan-based Khan's funeral prayers will be offered today after Zuhr prayers in Islamabad, after which he will be buried in the H-11 graveyard.
Roedad Khan was born on September 28, 1923, in Mardan, and was the most senior bureaucrat of Pakistan. He joined the civil service in 1949 in the District Management Group.
Khan worked with five presidents and three prime ministers and held important positions in many important institutions throughout his civil services career, including the chief secretary of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and adviser to the president and prime minister.
After retirement, he regularly wrote for major publications and even authored two books.
Politician Mushahid Hussain Syed mourned Khan's death with a post on his X account, calling him a "national Icon & Legend (sic)".
"He lived a full life of service to Pakistan during our tumultuous periods + post-retirement: pioneered Environmental Protection for Islamabad, authored books & became Bold Activist for Democracy & Human Rights! Truly a unique, multifaceted personality of our times! He will be missed by his countless admirers!"
Journalist Moeed Pirzada reshared Syed's post with his own caption, praying for the departed soul and recalling how the two used to cross paths during morning walks around Faisal Mosque.
"Roedad Khan was a living walking history of Pakistan, with his departure country has lost its connection with the past - and is hurtling like a spaceship into an uncertain unknown future!"
Journalist Hamid Mir also shared a picture from 2007 on his X account from a protest against the rule of former president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf in which Roedad Khan could be seen sitting between poet Ahmed Faraz and journalist Minhaj Barna.
He recalled how senior citizens came out to support him during those days when he was banned on TV.
PTI leader and former senator Faisal Javed Khan called Roedad Khan the "young boy" of the party's 2014 Islamabad sit-in and prayed for his soul.
He claimed that the veteran bureaucrat wished to meet Imran Khan in Adiala Jail and kept repeating just one sentence: "I want to meet Imran Khan."
