Pakistan’s leaders pay homage to Morsi

KARACHI, ISLAMABAD, Pakistan

Leaders of Pakistan’s ruling and opposition parties expressed grief Monday over the martyrdom of former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and said the Muslim world has lost a true hero.

In a statement, Senator Siraj ul Haq, chief of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan, the country’s mainstream religious party, said Morsi had refused to bow to dictatorship and withdraw support for the Palestinian struggle for freedom and independence, which were his only “crimes”.

"Morsi stood tall in the face of all pressures aimed at forcing him to withdraw from his struggle for the fundamental rights of the people of Egypt and his support to Palestine," Haq noted, adding, "the dictatorial regime failed miserably to break his resolve".

He announced that the party would hold funeral prayers in absentia Tuesday for Morsi across Pakistan.

"Indeed -- sad news. What hope there was and how tragically it all ended. RIP," Shireen Mazari, Pakistan’s human rights minister, said on Twitter.

Ahsan Iqbal, leader of the main opposition party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and former interior minister, said Morsi will be remembered.

"First democratically elected President of Egypt Mohamed Morsi will be remembered in history for his courage and dignity in captivity. May Allah Bless his soul Ameen!" Iqbal tweeted.

Maryam Nawaz Sharif, daughter of jailed former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and PML-N vice president, expressed similar sentiments.

"Egypt’s 1st democratically elected President charged with ‘espionage’, ‘leaking state secrets’& ‘insulting the judiciary’. Charges every elected representative faces before being thrown out. It is how you’re remembered & honoured by history& posterity that matters. You win. RIP," Maryam tweeted.

“I am deeply saddened at death of former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi. He was not granted right to fair trial & faced political victimization by military regime. International community, especially Islamic world, must raise voice against it,” Mohammad Sarwar, governor of Punjab province, said on Twitter.

Pakistani bloggers and activists also took to social media, holding the Egyptian and Saudi governments responsible for Morsi's death.