New Delhi: Lok Sabha on Wednesday paid respect to Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, former Bangladesh prime minister Khaleda Zia and five of its former members who passed away recently. As soon as the House met after the President's address to the joint sitting of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, the secretary general laid copies of the address. Speaker Om Birla read out obituary references on Pawar, Zia, Shalini Patil, Bhanu Prakash Mirdha, Satyendra Nath Brohmo Chaudhury, Suresh Kalmadi and Kabindra Purkayastha.
The House was then adjourned for the day. Pawar, a former Lok Sabha member, was killed in an air crash on Wednesday. In his remarks, Birla said Zia's role in strengthening the India-Bangladesh relationship will always be remembered. While Patil was a member of the seventh Lok Sabha, Mirdha was a part of the eleventh Lok Sabha. Chaudhury was a member of the tenth Lok Sabha, while Kalmadi was an MP in the eleventh, fourteenth and fifteenth Lok Sabha. Purkayastha was a part of the tenth, twelfth and fifteenth Lok Sabha.