Former Vidhan Sabha Speaker and senior Congress leader Harnam Das Johar passed away after a cardiac arrest on Sunday morning here.
He was 83. Johar was elected as Congress party MlA from ludhiana west constituency in 1985. Johar started his career with the Indian Air Force. Before actively joining politics, he also worked as a lawyer.
He was nominated as the district chief of the party in 1989 and continued on the post till 1992 when he became the Education Minister in the Beant Singh Government. He was nominated as speaker in 1993. later, Johar became Minister for local bodies in the government led by Rajinder Kaur Bhattal in 1996.
The senior Congress leader was cremated with full state honours with a host of political leaders, cutting across party lines, present at the ceremony.
A large number of political leaders, including ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu and political adviser to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Maheshinder Singh Grewal, were present at the cremation.
The Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal expressed grief over the demise of veteran Congress leader and said that in the death of Johar the state has lost a balanced and an experienced leader, who believed in clean and value based politics.
Expressing his heartfelt sympathies with the members of the bereaved family, the Chief Minister prayed to the Almighty to grant eternal peace to the departed soul and give strength and courage to them to bear this irreparable loss.
In his condolence message, the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said that Johar, ex-speaker Punjab Vidhan Sabha, always conducted proceedings of the State Assembly with impartiality and performed his duties as minister with absolute ability. He said that Johar always kept aloft the glorious traditions of the Assembly.
Sukhbir also said during his tenure as minister for higher education, Johar always strived to make the benefits of higher education reach all the echelons of society.