Former NWFP Governor, Ex-federal Interior Minister and PPP central leader, Major General Naseerullah Babar (Retd), who died here on late Sunday night, was buried in his ancestral graveyard in Pirpai Nowshera district. Large number of people including politicians, PPP leaders and workers, high ranking government officials, Ministers, MNAs and MPAs attended the funeral prayers of the veteran leader of PPP.
Head of his own faction of JUI(S), Maulana Sami-ul-Haq led the funeral prayers of Naseerullah Babar. It merits a mention here that Naseerullah Babar died at a hospital in Peshawar due to protracted illness. He was 82. The Major General Naseerullah Babar (Retd) was born in 1928 in Ismaeil Khel near Akora Khattak Nowshera district, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
He was a senior central leader of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and served as Governor of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa from 1975-1977. Hailing from Babar tribe, Naseerullah was a former Pakistan army general and former Inspector General of Frontier Corps. He served as Governor of NWFP during Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's government as well as interior minister during Benazir Bhutto's second government from 1993-1996.
In his long career in the Army, Babar served in the artillery Corps, Aviation during the 1965 war against India and in the 1970's he was appointed IG Frontier Corp, he retired as major General in 1976. During the 1965 war with India, Babar single handily captured an entire Indian company of soldiers (over 70 POWs) and was awarded Sitara-e-Jurat for this action. In the 1971 war, he commanded an artillery brigade in support of 23 Division and later commanded an infantry division till he was wounded and evacuated from the battlefield. He also has the distinction of being awarded SJ & Bar.
After retirement, Babar join politics and contested the 1977 election on a Pakistan Peoples Party ticket from his home district of Nowshera. After the imposition of Martial Law he famously threw away his Hilal i Jurat (with bar) and other army medals at the presiding officer of a military tribunal, when Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was hanged by the military regime of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. Senior Ministers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including Bashir Bilour and Rahim Dad also attended the last rituals of the PPP leader.