IN the death of Syed Faseih Iqbal, we have lost in one person a rare combination of qualities, attributes and achievements. He was a journalist, publisher, editor, champion of Balochistan’s rights while being the province’s resident by choice rather than birth, and a true Pakistani. Above all, he was a warm-hearted, compassionate human being.

As the ambulance began its long drive from Karachi to Quetta on Friday, this writer got out of a car to salute him in silence and wish him Godspeed to the heaven, to which he surely belongs.

His own car never flew his country’s flag because he never held the office of a minister or governor. But the last vehicle in which he travelled was bearing a gentleman who served his country, his province and his profession with far more sincerity and passion than many flag-bearing office-holders one has known. This was the kind of moment in which one could have disregarded abhorrence for weapons, and would not have minded a gun salute to mark the departure of an eminence.

As a pioneering publisher and editor of Zamana, an Urdu daily, and Balochistan Times, an English daily, as the first to publish a Balochi language newspaper and a Balochi weekly, Syed Faseih Iqbal rendered a formative influence on the evolution of the province’s media.

Respecting Balochistan’s ethnic and linguistic diversity, he projected every viewpoint with sensitivity. He went on to gain leadership at the national level in the representative bodies of publishers and editors.

So empathetic could he be for the disadvantaged that, as a PFUJ leader recounted at his Namaz-i-Janaza, he would end up arguing in favour of the working journalists’ position during Wage Board award negotiations, to the annoyance of fellow owners.

As a Senator (1985-88 and 1988-94), he extended and invigorated his advocacy of Balochistan’s cause with relentless energy inside and outside parliament. Despite often being deeply disappointed by the centre’s omissions and several failures of the province’s own leadership, he never surrendered to despair.

As one of the co-founders of the South Asian Editors’ Forum (1999) and later its president, he worked with other editors from the region, and this writer, to initiate path-breaking communication between influential individuals.

As a philanthropist, he would frequently contribute sums to persons in dire need and tip and distribute amounts quietly, liberally and generously to those from low-income groups.

Serving welfare causes such as the SOS Children’s Village in Quetta typified his desire to help other human beings, specially orphaned or abandoned children.

He remained a happy bachelor to the very end and liked to say that his journals and his causes comprised his immediate family. With siblings and nephews and nieces who adored him, Syed Faseih Iqbal was an individual who spread cheer and affability wherever he went. Winning a high civil award or other honours in his own country or being acknowledged overseas, this was a man with a golden heart who will, by his presence, we earnestly pray, enrich his next abode up there, somewhere.

The writer is a former senator and federal ministe.

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