Altaf Hamid Rao,
MIRPUR (AJK): Veteran business and the founder of M/s Azam Pipe Industries (Pvt) Ltd, Mr. Muhammad Azam passed away after prolonged illness here Wednesday night. He was 90.
He was the father of Dr. Khalid Yousaf, Executive Director of Jinnah Hospital, Muhammad Naeem of M/s. Azam Stores and seasoned local legal community stalwart Muhammad Haleem Advocate and three other sons. He was laid to rest in his ancestral central Eidgah graveyard here Thursday. Thousands of people from all walks of life including civil and military officials, serving and retired judges of the superior and subordinate judiciary of AJK, members of the business community, lawyers, journalists, social and political leaders and activists including retired chief justice of AJK Supreme Court Justice Muhammad Azam Khan, former AJK Sports minister Ch. Muhammad Saeed, Retired Secretary Electricity Muhammad Iqbal Rattayal, Chairman AJK Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Mirpur Prof. Mirza Shahid Munir Jarral, Retired Secretary Azad Kashmir Transport Authority Adil Mahmood Khan, Chairman Jinnah Foundation AJK and PTI AJK leader Dr. Amin Chaudhry, Sr. Kashmiri journalist Altaf Hamid Rao, Dr. Shehzad Khan, Engr. Prof. Muhammad Iqbal of Mirpur University of Science & Technology and others attended the funeral.
Late Muhammad Azam, originally hailing from Nawaan Sheher (formerly Ranbheer Singh Pura) located close to other side of the working boundary in occupied Jammu, had a distinguished career in the corporate sector in Azad Jammu Kashmir as he emerged as one of the pioneer members of the emergence of New Mirpur city since 1960 after the construction of Mangla dam, now the country’s largest reservoir, located in Mirpur district of Azad Jammu Kashmir. He founded the cement pipe industry by established a pipe manufacturing unity at old industrial estate in New Mirpur paving a way to the advent and promotion of the trade and industrial activities in buildings construction both in private and public sectors.
