Tributes paid to Barna
Karachi: The death of veteran journalist, poet and noted trade union leader Minhaj Barna reminds of the painstaking efforts made by people like him to secure freedom of media in Pakistan, to reach out to people and to speak their language, said Syed Jawaid Iqbal, chairman of Moderates, a private sector think tank for strengthening tolerance, interfaith harmony and democracy.
He said the late Barna was deeply influenced by the movement of freedom of speech from the days of his youth and was active not only in journalism but also in campaigning for the rights of journalists as a union leader and later as a counsel for other trade union leaders.
The Pakistani journalists’ fraternity has lost a key champion of media rights, he added.
Jawaid said Barna’s demise not only signified the loss of an icon in the newspaper industry but also the loss of a moderate voice, which could not be silenced even during the most trying times of the nation’s history, especially during the most oppressive rule of General Ziaul Haq from 1977 to 1988.
Source: Daily Times
Date:1/19/2011
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