Syed Ijlal Haider Zaidi (29 December 1929 – 23 March 2013)) was a member of the

Civil Service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

of Pakistan (CSP). He served in various key administrative and secretarial capacities, including Deputy Commissioner of Peshawar,

Director General A director general or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals'' ) or general director is a senior executive (government), executive officer, often the chief executive offi ...

of Radio Pakistan, Chief Secretary of

Azad Kashmir Azad Jammu and Kashmir (; ), abbreviated as AJK and colloquially referred to as simply Azad Kashmir, is a region administered by Pakistan as a nominally self-governing entitySee: * * * and constituting the western portion of the larger Ka ...

, Chief Secretary of North-West Frontier Province, Federal Defence Secretary. After his retirement, Zaidi served as an advisor to the Prime Minister of Pakistan

Benazir Bhutto Benazir Bhutto ( ur, بینظیر بُھٹو; sd, بينظير ڀُٽو; Urdu ; 21 June 1953 – 27 December 2007) was a Pakistani politician who served as the 11th and 13th prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 t ...

. Since 1992 he has been the

chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

of the Pakistan-Japan Friendship Association, and in 2008 received a special commendation for his work there from the

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

to Pakistan.

Early life and career

Syed Ijlal Haider Zaidi was born on 29 December 1929 in Shahabad, the then

Karnal district Karnal district is one of the 22 districts of Haryana state in North India which constitutes the National Capital Region (NCR) of the country. The city of Karnal is a part of the National Capital Region (NCR) and is the administrative headqu ...

, British India. He was a B.Sc engineer by profession, and obtained distinguished position in Superior Competitive Services examinations of Pakistan. His grandfather late Engineer Mr. Syed Ghulam Shabbir Zaidi (1860—26 November 1949) was the chief of Shahabad town and renowned philanthropist of the town, and his father late Mr. Syed Muhammad Ibrahim Zaidi (December 1890—11 September 1958) was one of the pioneer Muslim B.Sc engineers of the entire Indian sub-continent, and Aligarh College graduate as well as a poet, novelist, intellectual and prose-writer; and also served as Senior Vice Chairman of Lahore Board of Education during the 1950s. His youngest brother late Mr. Syed Ijmal Haider Zaidi (12 October 1949—29 March 2009), who served as senior Vice President, Habib Bank Limited, Pakistan, was also a lawyer and writer, whose son Mujtaba Haider Zaidi writer, lawyer and columnist of Pakistani English Newspaper

The Frontier Post ''The Frontier Post'' is an independent English language daily newspaper founded in Peshawar, Pakistan, in 1985. It publishes from Peshawar, Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi, and Quetta. History When the paper was founded in 1985, there were no promi ...

is the pioneer playwright of the Theatre of the Absurd and Stream of Consciousness in Urdu literature and author of first book in support of disputed Power to Veto under the title "Veto Oligarchy: The Fittest Deserve Supremacy".

Death and legacy

Syed Ijlal Haider Zaidi died on the morning of 23 March 2013 in Lahore after a 2-year battle with cancer. He left behind three daughters. Zaidi was an influential member of the establishment. He served as a senior bureaucrat while working very close to four former

Presidents of Pakistan The president of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=s̤adr-i Pākiṣṭān), officially the President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is the ceremonial head of state of Pakistan and the commander-in-chief of the Pakistan Armed Forces.Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Zulfikar (or Zulfiqar) Ali Bhutto ( ur, , sd, ذوالفقار علي ڀٽو; 5 January 1928 – 4 April 1979), also known as Quaid-e-Awam ("the People's Leader"), was a Pakistani barrister, politician and Politician, statesman who served as ...

, General Zia Ul-Haq, Ghulam Ishaq Khan and

Farooq Leghari Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari ( ur, ; 29 May 194020 October 2010), was a Pakistani politician who served as the eighth president of Pakistan from 14 November 1993 until resigning on 2 December 1997. He is the first Baloch to have been elected a ...

, and was considered to be the right hand man and the closest aide of the former President Ghulam Ishaq Khan.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zaidi, Ijlal Haider 1929 births 2013 deaths Pakistani civil servants Defence Secretaries of Pakistan Muhajir people Pakistan Army civilians