"COAS conveys condolences to bereaved family of deceased Senator John McCain," DG ISPR Major General Asif Ghafoor tweeted.
“McCain was a distinguished war veteran and an accomplished representative of his country. A friend of Pakistan who believed in great potential of Pak-US relations for common good of both countries,” the army chief was quoted as saying.
McCain, who had been battling glioblastoma — an aggressive brain cancer, died on Saturday. He was 81.
He had been in the public eye since the 1960s, when as a naval aviator he was shot down during the Vietnam War and tortured by his North Vietnamese communist captors during 5-1/2 years as a prisoner.
He was edged out by George W Bush for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000 but became his party’s White House candidate eight years later. After gambling on political neophyte Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate, McCain lost in 2008 to Democrat Barack Obama, who became the first black US president.
McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was a frequent critic as well as a target of his fellow Republican, Trump, who was elected president in November 2016.
McCain denounced Trump for among other things his praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin and other leaders the senator described as foreign “tyrants.”
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