ISLAMABAD: Senior Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leader and former Senator Rehman Malik passed away here on Wednesday due to coronavirus-related complications, his spokesperson confirmed. He was 70.
Malik was survived by his wife and two sons. He had tested positive for the virus in January, and had complained of breathing problems. Earlier this month, he was put on a ventilator. "Deeply devastated to say that former interior minister [and] PPP's senior leader, Abdul Rehman Malik, passed away," Malik's spokesperson Riaz Ali Turi tweeted on Wednesday.
Before his entry into national politics, Malik was with Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency as a special agent, and was elevated to the post of the Additional Director General in 1993. During his stint as a director, he coordinated numerous successful counter-terrorist operations, including the arrest and extradition of Yousaf Ramzi to the US in 1995.
From 2004 to 2007, he served as the chief of security of late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. In 2008, he was appointed Interior Minister by the then Prime Minister Yousaf Gilani.