Legendary comedian Umer Sharif buried at Abdullah Shah Ghazi graveyard

KARACHI:  Legendary Pakistani comedian Umer Sharif has been buried at the Abdullah Shah Ghazi graveyard on Wednesday afternoon.

Prior to the burial, hundreds of people attended the comedian's funeral prayers at a park in  Karachi's Clifton areas.

SSP South confirmed to Geo News that over 200 police officers, under the supervision of two DSPs, had been stationed at the funeral for security.

He said police had installed a walk-through gate at the entrance to the Umer Sharif Park in Clifton Block II. The ground outside the main gate of the park had been designated as the parking area for the funeral prayers while traffic police officials had been deployed outside the park to ensure uninterrupted flow of traffic.

A bomb disposal squad had also searched the park prior to the funeral prayers.

Earlier, Umer's body had been shifted to his home in Karachi from the mortuary Wednesday morning for his last rites.

Turkish Airlines flight TK-708, carrying the corpse of the “comedy king”, took off from Istanbul at 12:53 am and landed at the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi at around 5:33 am today morning.

Umer Sharif's wife Zareen Ghazal also arrived back in Pakistan on board the same plane. His sons and other relatives received his body at the airport. Among others, Pakistan Peoples Party leader, Saeed Ghani and MQM's Kishwar Zahra also arrived at the airport's cargo terminal.

The deceased comedian's body was flown to Munich from Nuremberg, Germany, before being flown to Istanbul aboard Turkish Air flight TK-1634.

The PPP leader paid tribute to the comic genius. "I call upon the people to attend Umer Sharif's funeral in a large number as a message to the entire world that Pakistanis remember their legends even after they had passed away," Ghani said while talking to media.

Later, his body — wrapped in Pakistan's green flag — had been shifted to the Edhi morgue, Sohrab Goth, from the airport. His fans showered his body with a lot of rose petals. 

A large number of people also showed up at Umer Sharif's residence in Gulshan-e-Iqbal to offer their condolences to the bereaved family.

Umer Sharif was admitted to a hospital in Germany’s Nuremberg on Wednesday after his health deteriorated during his flight to the United States. He was shifted to the hospital after his air ambulance made a scheduled landing in Germany.

The comedian was diagnosed with multiple ailments, including coronary conditions.

Three days after his stay in Germany, he was expected to resume his travel to the US for medical treatment. However, a couple of hours after his dialysis, he suffered a heart attack that took his life.

Umer Sharif was aged 66 at the time of his death. His doctor and husband of former Pakistani actress Reema Khan, Dr Tariq Shahab, said the comedian was feeling fine during his dialysis.

However, a subsequent heart attack proved fatal for him four hours after the dialysis at the Nuremberg South Hospital.

Sharif was born on April 19, 1955, to an Urdu-speaking family in Liaquatabad, Karachi. The star was well-acclaimed as one of the biggest comedians in Asia.