Unfortunate: DJ Butt’s assistant dies of heart attack at PTI sit-in

Rana Azhar Iqbal worked with the lighting and electrical team

ISLAMABAD: A member of DJ Butt’s support team at the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf sit-in died at Parade Avenue after suffering a cardiac arrest on Thursday.

Rana Azhar Iqbal had just returned from his hometown Faisalabad after celebrating Eid with his family when he breathed last in the arms of his friend, Waris Ali.



“How are you? How were things in my absence,” he asked as he got off the car, Ali recalled. “The next moment, he keeled over and fell. I held him in my arms. He took a couple of deep breaths and started sweating. A few seconds later, he closed his eyes and was gone.”

Ali said Iqbal was excited to see his kids before he left for Faisalabad for Eid.

Iqbal had been working at the sit-in from day one as a bookkeeper for the lighting and electrical team.

Doctors and ambulances present at the sit-in site were immediately called but they pronounced him dead at the site.



Iqbal, believed to be in his late 40s, was a record-keeper for the PTI for the last few years. Ali, his longtime colleague, said Iqbal always had a smile on his face. “Despite facing worldly losses and difficult situations in life, I never saw him angry or scolding anyone.”

Ali said that Iqbal, a father of three, hailed from Abdullahpur in Faisalabad. “He knew how to get things done.”

Iqbal had also been providing services to other parties, said officials at the PTI central secretariat. The officials said they would miss Iqbal’s ever-smiling face and polite attitude.

Polyclinic medico-legal officer and emergency in-charge Dr Tanveer Malik told The Express Tribune that Iqbal was brought to the hospital at around 10:30am and was dead on arrival.

“According to the initial reports, cardiopulmonary arrest caused the death. However, the actual cause would be confirmed through an autopsy,” he said.

He said it was difficult to find out if Iqbal had a personal or family history of heart problems as no relatives were with him when he was brought to the hospital.

Dr Malik further said that his relatives came to the hospital to collect his body at around 4pm.

The family said they did not want the body to undergo a postmortem. The hospital admin asked them to approach the office of the assistant commissioner to get an exemption from the postmortem.

They had not returned to the hospital till the time this report was filed.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10^th, 2014.