KARACHI, Nov 17: Tributes were paid to senior journalist the late Alimuddin Pathan at a condolence meeting held at Karachi Press Club on Saturday.
Old friends, longtime journalist colleagues of the late Mr Pathan and his younger brother highlighted various aspects of his multidimensional personality, including his long struggle for rights of the journalist community, etc.
Tracing his over three decades long career, they said he had probably made up his mind what field he would choose during his students days as he enrolled and obtained the post-graduate degree in journalism from Karachi University in the mid-60s.
They said he began his career as a reporter with PPI news agency from which he was later sacked for raising the issue of the rights of workers.
They said later he joined an English-language daily, Sun, from which also he was sacked for highlighting the issue of workers’ rights. He joined Dawn in the 1980s and remained associated with it till he breathed his last.
They said he was an honest and outspoken man with high professional integrity and carried out many difficult assignments with ease and clarity of mind. He had a clear vision and was above petty prejudices.
Speakers said in the highly tense atmosphere of the late 80s and early 90s he was given the difficult assignment of covering the activities of an urban- based political party, and he carried out his duties so professionally that he became one of the most trusted journalists of the party chief, who praised him for his balanced reporting and high professional standards that he followed.
They said once he broke news of toxic waste that was being imported from the West into the country. After the story was published the government woke up and did not allow the ship to be berthed here. Since the toxic material could not be imported and it resulted in a huge monetary loss to the local importers, they became his enemies and even threatened to eliminate him, which he had expected, but this did not deter him from filing the story.
Speakers said he was a self-made man, and coming from a low-income locality of Lyari he worked hard and later his family shifted to the United States. They said he was always ready to help those in trouble, particularly those from the journalist community.
Citing an example of his services to the community, they said he obtained a donation of half a million rupees from the Banking Council for Karachi Press Club that had been kept in fixed deposit and now that amount was more than Rs3 million.
Younger brother of Alimuddin Pathan, Bashiruddin, Abdul Hameed Chhapra, Prof Zakaria Sajid, Sabihuddin Ghausi, Latif Baloch, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Khurshid Tanweer, Mazhar Abbas, Mushtaq Memon and others also spoke.
