Zamir Niazi
Editorial…
A committed journalist, a jealous champion of freedom of the press, a meticulous chronicler of the oreals of the press, and other epithets easily come to mind; all true, yet none would adequately describe Zamir Niazi, who passed away on Friday morning.
He was a phenomenon, unique not for the definition of his commitment but for the intensity and depth of his belief in the freedom of the press.
That was indeed his elan vital that not only enabled him to keep his cancer in check for more than fifteen years but spurred him to contribute more and more to the world of letters.
His magnum opus, The Press in Chains, which is commonly considered to be the bible on the hostility of the establishment towards the fourth estate, was followed by two more books, The Press under Siege and The Web of Censorship, besides several Urdu publication.
Bed-ridden though he was for more than a decade, cancer could not stop him from working on a revised edition of The Press in Chains, but the mortal succumbed to a sudden onslaught of respiratory trouble. His mission was fated to remain incomplete, or is it that he had completed it already during his bout with cancer? May his soul rest in peace.
Along with his family, Business Recorder has a special reason to mourn Zamir Niazi’s departure. Since he had worked as an apprentice sub-editor in Dawn with M.A. Zuberi, he was associated with the paper from the very conceptive stages and worked hard during its formative years until he was disabled by a heart attack.
The phenomenon that he was, one might say, he could have lived longer and written more about the Press, if his elan vital had not failed.
Source: Business Recorder
Date:6/12/2004
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