Jang chief reporter Arif Ishaq passes away
KARACHI: Arif Ishaq, a senior journalist and chief reporter of Daily Jang, Karachi, died on Monday after suffering a heart attack. He was 55.
Beginning his day’s work on Monday, Arif Ishaq had gone to Civic Centre to deposit property tax for his house. After he reached the Excise and Taxation Department, on the fourth floor of Civic Centre Building, he felt pain in his chest. The excise staff made him lies down on a bench where he suffered a severe heart and died. The cause of cardiac arrest is stated to be exertion after he climbed the fourth floor through staircases after parking his car at a far-away place in the hot and humid weather.
His funeral prayers were held after Namaz-e-Maghrib at Jamia Masjid Faisal Gulshan-e-Iqbal. He was laid to rest at Yasinabad graveyard, FB Area. Born on January 14, 1947 in the Indian City of Sagar, he did his graduation from Karachi. He joined the Daily Jang in 1967 and remained associated with the newspaper till his death. He also underwent a successful heart surgery in 1989 in London. He was promoted about a week ago as chief reporter of daily Jang, his second stint in the same position.
Earlier, he retired from the service of Jang on completion of 25 years of service and joined the newspaper on a contractual basis.
He was well-known in journalistic circles in the city for his tireless reporting endeavours and abilities during his about 34-year uninterrupted association with the largest Urdu newspaper of the country. He leaves behind, besides his widow, a son and a daughter and scores of admirers in the public and private sector education circles as he exclusively covered the education sector during his journalistic career.
Critics and veteran journalists truly saw Arif Ishaq as the pioneer of many trends in education reporting, specially in the mainstream Urdu press of the country. One of his colleagues commented that Arif reflected and conveyed the real crippling shortcomings of the country’s education sector through his reports.
Meanwhile, messages kept pouring into the offices of Jang Group of newspapers to condole the demise of Arif Ishaq. The Governor Sindh, Mohammedmian Soomro, in his condolence message, recalled the services rendered by the deceased in the realms of education and particularly mentioned his contributions towards the promotion of education. Soomro prayed for eternal peace for the departed soul and fortitude to the bereaved family.
The Federal Minister for Information and Media Development, Nisar A Memon, also expressed grief on the death of Arif Ishaq. The Federal Information Secretary, Syed Anwar Mahmood and Principal Information Officer, Mohammad Akram Shaheedi, also expressed their grief.
Those who condoled the death of Arif Ishaq included, the IGP, Sindh, Syed Kamal Shah; the Vice-Chancellor, University of Karachi, Prof Dr Zafar Saeed Saify, along with many of his officials and faculty members at the varsity; Chief of Mohajir Qaumi Movment, Afaq Ahmed; President, Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Abdur Razaq Agar; President, Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (Dastoori),Saeed Aasi; its secretary-general, Sajid Aziz; president and secretary-general of the Karachi Union of Journalists (Dastoori), Ali Hamza Khan and Masood Anwar; Chairman, All-Private Schools Management Association, Sindh, Syed Khalid Shah; President, Sindh Democratic Alliance, Imtiaz Ahmed Sheikh, President and Secretary of Karachi University Teachers’ Society, Dr Fahimuddin and Sarwar Nasim; and Chief the Pakistan Educational and Social Forum, Dr Alam Ara.
Meanwhile, The News Employees Union president Nusrat Khalil Jamali, general secretary Rishad Mahmood and other office-bearers have also expressed deep sorrow and grief over the demise of Arif Ishaq.
They termed the death of the senior journalist a great loss to the profession and prayed for eternal rest to the departed soul.
Source: The News
Date:8/20/2002
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