Jabbar Khan Hayat Khan Honnalli, former Minister, died in Hubballi on Friday. He was 80.
He was ailing for some time, family sources said. He joined the Congress after serving the Janata Dal United. He served as a Minister in S.M. Krishna’s Cabinet. He also served as MLC for one year from 1989.
Hailing from Hirekerur in undivided Dharwad district, he came to Hubballi after appointment as a teacher in a government primary school. An educationist, he founded the Youth Muslim Educational Association at Hirekerur and started a primary school for girls in in 1962.
He founded the Alfarah Education and Cultural Association in Hubballi and served as Joint Secretary of the Karnataka Muslim Education Society, from 1975 to 1978.
He financed the construction of an Arabic School under the auspices of Muslim Jamaat in Keshwapur in Hubballi.
He found two cooperative societies and served on the boards of four other societies.
D.K. Shivakumar, KPCC president, has expressed his condolences. “I remember him as a soft spoken gentleman, who started and managed educational institutions,’’ he said.
Calling him a “dear friend”, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said he missed his decades long interactions with a “simple soul”. His contribution to educating the deprived communities cannot be overstated, he said.
