WEB DESK: Agha Siraj Khan Durrani, the long-serving Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) stalwart and former speaker of the Sindh Assembly, passed away on Wednesday, marking the end of an era for one of Sindh’s most storied political families. Born in the mid-1950s in Shikarpur, Durrani came from a lineage deeply woven into Sindh’s political and cultural fabric. President Asif Ali Zardari expressed sorrow and offered condolences to the deceased’s family.
President Asif Ali Zardari has expressed deep sorrow over the passing of former Speaker of the Sindh Assembly, Agha Siraj Durrani. The President paid tribute to his political and public services, noting his role in strengthening democracy and serving the people of Sindh.
— The President of Pakistan (@PresOfPakistan) October 15, 2025
According to a profile by Dawn, his grandfather, Agha Shamsuddin, was a poet and musician who founded the famed Aashyana library, while his uncle, Agha Badruddin, helped draft the Lahore Resolution and later served as the Sindh Assembly’s speaker. His father, Agha Sadaruddin, a mechanical engineer and PPP loyalist, also presided over the Sindh Assembly during Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s government — making the Durranis the only family in Sindh’s history to have three generations serve as assembly speakers.
Educated at Karachi’s St Patrick’s School and Sindh Muslim Law College, Durrani was inspired by Bhutto’s charisma and populist ideals. He briefly studied in the United States before returning home to enter politics, contesting the 1985 party-less elections alongside his brother Agha Salahuddin. Both lost heavily, but the tables turned in 1988 when Durrani, running under the PPP banner, defeated his rival Nadir Khan Kumario, beginning a long and often dramatic political career.
Known for his fierce loyalty to the PPP and his close friendship with Asif Ali Zardari — said to date back to a youthful scuffle at Karachi’s Hotel Metropole — Durrani became a fixture in Sindh politics. He served as local government minister and later, as speaker of the Sindh Assembly, presided with an assertive, often combative style that reflected both his feudal roots and political resilience.
Married into the influential Pagaro family, Durrani embodied the old-school Sindhi political elite — aristocratic, loyal to the Bhutto legacy, and steeped in the traditions of power and patronage. His death closes a chapter in Sindh’s political history, where family, loyalty and legacy often mattered as much as ideology.