Former Azad Jammu and Kashmir president Raja Muhammad Zulqarnain Khan has died at the age of 90, President Asif Ali Zardari said on Saturday, expressing grief over the passing of the veteran Kashmiri politician.
President Zardari, in a statement issued in Islamabad, said the political and public services of Zulqarnain Khan would always be remembered. He prayed for the elevation of the departed soul’s rank and for fortitude for the bereaved family.
Zulqarnain Khan served as the president of Azad Jammu and Kashmir for a full five-year term, from 25 August 2006 to 25 August 2011. He was a senior leader of the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference and one of the region’s longest-serving public figures, with a political career that stretched back more than six decades.
The announcement carried no further details about funeral arrangements at the time of publication.
President Zardari’s condolence message
President Asif Ali Zardari expressed grief over the passing of the former Azad Kashmir president in a statement carried by the DNA news agency on Saturday 7 November. The president said the political and public services of Raja Muhammad Zulqarnain Khan would always be remembered.
In his message, the president prayed for the elevation of the departed soul’s rank and for strength and patience for the bereaved family. The condolence message was among the first official reactions to the news of Zulqarnain Khan’s death, which was confirmed on 7 November 2026.
A life in public service
Raja Muhammad Zulqarnain Khan was born on 15 March 1936 in Gujrat, Punjab, into a Rajput family. His father, Khan Bahadur Raja Muhammad Afzal Khan, was a member of the Indian Civil Service who served as home, education and revenue minister in the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir during 1930 to 1941 and was a close confidant of Maharaja Hari Singh.
Zulqarnain Khan studied in Srinagar, New Delhi and Lahore, completing his Cambridge studies at Aitchison College in Lahore before joining Forman Christian College, Lahore. He graduated in the French language, an unusual academic background for a politician of his generation that colleagues often recalled with pride.
From the Assembly to the presidency
Zulqarnain Khan began his political career in 1960, associating himself with Khurshid Hasan Khurshid, and in 1962 became the first general-secretary of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation League. He was elected several times to the Legislative Assembly of Azad Kashmir and served as a minister for around a decade, holding the finance, revenue, planning and development portfolios in 1985 and 1991, and also serving in a three-member cabinet under President Major General (retired) Abdul Rehman.
He remained a central figure in the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference, the region’s oldest political party, and served as a member of the Jammu and Kashmir Council in Islamabad and as an adviser to the prime minister of Pakistan before his election to the presidency.
Five years at the helm
Zulqarnain Khan was elected president of Azad Jammu and Kashmir in August 2006 and took the oath of office on 25 August 2006. He completed the full five-year term, leaving office on 25 August 2011, when he was succeeded by Sardar Muhammad Yaqoob Khan.
During his presidency he spoke regularly on the Kashmir dispute at home and abroad. In July 2009, addressing overseas Pakistanis in New York, he urged Western powers to help resolve the long-running disputes of Kashmir and Palestine, drawing a distinction between freedom fighters and terrorists and recalling the victims of the October 2005 earthquake that devastated parts of Azad Kashmir.
Tributes and legacy
Zulqarnain Khan’s death closes a long chapter in Azad Kashmir’s politics. He was among the last of a generation of leaders whose careers began in the early years after Pakistan’s independence and who carried the Kashmir cause through the region’s assemblies, its council in Islamabad and its presidency.
His five years as president, his long service as a minister and legislator, and his early role in the Jammu Kashmir Liberation League leave behind a record of continuous public service spanning more than sixty years. Tributes from political leaders across Azad Kashmir and Pakistan are expected to follow the president’s condolence message.
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Sources: DNA News Agency and Raja Muhammad Zulqarnain Khan.
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