Senior politician and former Punjab governor Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khosa has passed away in Lahore at the age of 90 following a brief illness, his family confirmed on Thursday.
He had been under treatment at a hospital in the city for some time before his death.
Born on 20 October 1935, Khosa belonged to a prominent political family from Dera Ghazi Khan. He received his early education at Queen Mary College and later at Aitchison College, Lahore, before entering public life.
Khosa began his political career in 1962 when he was elected to the West Pakistan Assembly at the age of 26, becoming the youngest member of the house at the time. Over the course of his career, he went on to serve nine consecutive terms as a member of the Punjab Assembly — an electoral record widely regarded as one of the longest in the province’s political history.
Throughout his decades in politics, he held several key provincial portfolios, including education, irrigation and power, communications and works, finance, planning and development, and local government and rural development. He also served as senior minister and senior adviser in various administrations.
A long-time figure in mainstream Punjab politics, Khosa was closely associated with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz for much of his career. However, ahead of the 2018 general elections, he distanced himself from the party amid internal differences and later aligned himself with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.
He served as the 31st Governor of Punjab in 1999.
Khosa, also the recognised chief of the Khosa tribe — a Baloch tribe with roots across Punjab, Balochistan and Sindh — remained an influential political and tribal figure for decades.