President Arif Alvi condoled with the United States on the death of former Democratic Party senator Harry Reid.

“Would like to condole the death of senator Harry Reid. He was a very good friend of Pakistan,” tweeted President Arif Alvi.

Would like to condole the death of Senator Harry Reid. He was a very good friend of Pakistan. I still remember how eagerly he arranged our meetings with Senators & Congressmen when @ImranKhanPTI and I visited the US in 2012 trying to convince on a peaceful solution in Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/3rL39znIwt

— Dr. Arif Alvi (@ArifAlvi) December 29, 2021

In the tweet, the president recalled “how eagerly” the former senator from Nevada arranged Prime Minister Imran Khan and his meetings with senators and congressmen in 2012 when they tried to “convince” the US on a “peaceful solution in Afghanistan”.

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Former US Senate leader Harry Reid dies at 82

Former US Senate majority leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat who rose from humble beginnings to lead the upper chamber during the presidencies of George W Bush and Barack Obama, died Tuesday. He was 82.

“I am heartbroken to announce the passing of my husband,” his wife, Landra, said in a statement released to US media, adding he died “peacefully this afternoon, surrounded by our family.”

Reid, who used his experience in Congress to help Obama steer his landmark Affordable Care Act through the Senate, had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2018.

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Laconic and soft-spoken, Reid was born and raised in the mining town of Searchlight, Nevada on December 2, 1939, in a house with no hot water or indoor toilets.

A prize-fighter in his youth, he used his pugilistic instincts to work his way up to becoming one of the longest-serving majority leaders in US Senate history, and even called his memoir “The Good Fight.”

President Joe Biden, who served as Obama’s vice president and with Reid for two decades in the Senate, said in a statement his former colleague was a “giant of our history” and one of the “all-time great Senate Majority Leaders.”

“For Harry, it wasn’t about power for power’s sake. It was about the power to do right for the people.”

With additional input from AFP