KARACHI: Veteran journalist Ashfak Bokhari passed away on Thursday morning in Australia after a long illness. He was 75.

Former president of the Karachi Press Club, Mr Bokhari was suffering from liver cancer.

Two months back his son, Sunnil Bokhari, who lives in Malbourne, took him and his mother to Australia where he remained under treatment since then for his ailment without any recovery. On Thursday at 11am when all his immediate family members — wife, son and daughter — were at his bedside, he passed away. Besides family members, he has left behind many journalists and writers to mourn his death.

Mr Bokhari had joined Dawn in April 1983, contributed regular columns for EBR weekly and worked as assistant editor looking after editorial pages before his retirement in 2003. However, he remained associated with the newspaper till 2012. Earlier, he had worked for Business Recorder, the Pakistan Pre­ss International and also contributed articles for local and foreign newspapers. He did his graduation from Rawalpindi’s Gordon College and Masters from Gov­­ernment College, Lahore.

His funeral will be held at Preston mosque in Melbourne after Friday prayers and he will be laid to rest at Fawkner memorial park cemetery.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2018