Transitions: Sindhi newspaper’s editor passes away at 45 | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Transitions: Sindhi newspaper’s editor passes away at 45

Pakistan Press Foundation

HYDERABAD: Qazi Shah Muhammad, the editor of Sindhi newspaper Tameer-i-Sindh, died at the age of 45 in a road accident in Naushehro Feroze on Friday.

He was laid to rest at a graveyard in Kunda Khahi village in his hometown, Mehrabpur. The accident took place when the speeding car overturned at around 2am on Mehrabpur Road. Qazi Shah’s cousin Kashif Qazi, who was driving the car, was critically injured.

Qazi Shah’s activism for rights of Sindh preceded his career in journalism. “He was actively involved in Sindhi Hari (peasant) Movement, Jeay Sindh Tehreek and other platforms struggling for democracy, provincial autonomy and rights of Sindhis,” recalls his childhood companion, journalist Akhlaq Jokhio.

His rebellion to the system was such that ‘the comrade’ even surrendered his journalism degree from Shah Latif University due to poor teaching and examination standards, Jokhio told The Express Tribune.

Qazi Shah began his career in journalism in 1987. His first job was as crime reporter for daily Hilal-i-Pakistan in Karachi. While later working for Awami Awaz and Barsat dailies, he also took up contractor work in Karachi and made enough money to buy partnership in a Sindhi newspaper in 1996.

The following year, he launched his own newspaper, Tameer-i-Sindh, from Sukkur. The paper initially covered upper Sindh and was later shifted to Hyderabad in 1999. “In the years which followed, the newspaper earned a name for itself and was comfortably placed as the second most read Sindhi newspaper in the province,” remembers Dastgir Bhatti, senior Sindhi journalist. “As a person, he was a wonderful and generous man with a cool temperament.”

Tameer-i-Sindh over the last decade, however, slid into oblivion as other competitors made their place in the market. Qazi Shah is also credited for regularisation of Sindhi villages in Karachi, such as Sachal and Maruara villages, according to Bhatti.

The late journalist was also actively involved in organising the Sindhi diaspora, mainly in the Western countries to lobby for the interests of Sindhis, according to Ishaq Mangio, president of the Hyderabad Press Club. The deceased leaves behind his wife, three sons and a daughter.

Express Tribune


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