BORN in 1956, Fauzia Wahab was a senior Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) politician who was well known for her bold viewpoints and loyal attitude towards her party. She was a member of National Assembly from Sindh returned on a reserved seat for women after the February 18, 2008 general elections.Fauzia had been appointed as the new central Information Secretary of the Pakistan People’s Party in place of Ms Sherry Rehman on March 18, 2009 by PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari.She married in 1978 to Wahab Siddiqui, a journalist and TV anchorman in political talk shows in later years on Pakistan Television. For the next 14 years, she was a housewife and had four children. Fauzia acted in Haseena Moin’s drama serial ‘Kohar’ as the cousin of the hero played by then famous model Junaid Butt. The Drama was aired in 1991-92 and directed by M Zaheer Khan. In February 1993, Wahab Siddiqui died of a heart attack and her life took a new turn. She then re-married prominent cardiologist Dr Athar Hussein. On 27th May 2012 she was admitted to a hospital at Karachi, remained in a critical condition for days and died on June 17, 2012 at 08:01 pm.Fauzia worked for the Pakistan Industrial and Commercial Leasing as a marketing manager between 1993 and 1996. During this period, she was nominated as Member Advisory Council of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) in October 1994. Initially she was given charge of a Municipal Ward 59, an area consisting of cooperative societies of Karachi. She was also nominated as chairman of the information committee of KMC. In the meanwhile, then prime minister Benazir Bhutto nominated her as the information secretary of women’s wing of the Sindh PPP, a position Fauzia held till early 2002. After the dissolution of the PPP government in November 1996, general elections were held in February 1997 in which she was nominated to contest the elections on NA-193, as a PPP candidate. The PPP lost the elections and was confined to the opposition benches in the subsequent National Assembly.With cases established against the PPP leadership, a multi-pronged strategy was initiated by the party to defend its leadership. It included contesting cases in the courts and apprising international institutions about the conduct of these cases. Later on in 1998, Benazir nominated Fauzia as the Central Coordinator of the Human Rights Cell and was tasked to correspond with human rights defending organisations abroad. During the incarceration period of Benazir and Asif Zardari, she wrote on various pressure tactics of the National Accountability Bureau and various government agencies against the couple as well as party leaders and workers. She was also an active proponent for the repealing of the Hudood Ordinance as well as Blasphemy law.When the general elections 2002 were called in October, she was nominated as a candidate for the reserved seats for women in the National Assembly. She took oath as a legislator and was also made part of Standing Committee on Privatisation and Standing Committee on Economic Affairs. She was also a senior member of the Finance Committee of the National Assembly that looked after the budget of the assembly.In 2003, she attended the National Defence College course for bringing the politicians and armed forces close to each other. With the 2005 Local Government elections taking place in August, she was made responsible to work out an adjustment with the Jamat-e-Islami in the District East of Karachi. Later on, she was nominated to contest the elections of Karachi Nazim slot, however, her candidature was withdrawn in favour of Naimatullah Khan.During the National Assembly of 2002 and 2007, she was a very active member of the opposition. She was nominated again for a second term by the PPP and returned to the National Assembly. She took oath as a Treasury bench member on March 6, 2008.After Information Minister Sherry Rehman resigned from her government position, the party position she held was taken away and Fauzia was appointed the Information Secretary of the PPP. By virtue of being the Information Secretary, Fauzia became an ex-officio member of the Central Executive Committee of the party.Fauzia apparently resigned amongst the Raymond Davis controversy in February 2011, she made some comments about the Davis case and the outgoing FM Shah Mehmood Qureshi in a ‘disciplinary’ tone that the People’s Party immediately disowned. She was an MNA and holding an important banking and finance related portfolio in the Senate till her death.On 30 May 2012, Fauzia, a former student leader, underwent a gallbladder surgery. She developed post-operative complications. She was put on a ventilator in the ICU. However she didn’t recover from post-operative complications and died on Sunday June 17, 2012. 

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