KARACHI, March 18: Senior journalist and art critic Baseer Ashraf died of brain cancer after a long illness on Friday afternoon. He was 70. Born in Jabalpur, India, in 1935, Mr Ashraf started his journalistic career with The Times of Karachi in the late 1950s. Afterwards, he worked for some time in The Leader. When the late Mushtaq Ahmed became editor of the Morning News, he persuaded Mr Ashraf to join the newspaper. He left journalism for a long stint with the British Information Service. He later worked with the Sun for a brief period.

Mr Ashraf set up one of the first advertising agencies in Jeddah in partnership with a citizen of Saudi Arabia in the mid-1970s. Upon his return to Pakistan, he established an advertising agency, Iblaagh, and ran it successfully.

He is credited with coming up with many catchy selling lines of products. He also launched the monthly Newsline. In addition to writing on art throughout his journalistic career, Mr Ashraf took up the brush in his later years. An avid art collector, he possessed many prized paintings by leading artists, like M.F. Hussain, Zahoorul Akhlaq and Shakir Ali.

He is survived by a wife, Sabiha Ashraf, and three children – a daughter and two sons – all settled abroad.

Namaz-i-Janaza will be offered at the mosque adjacent to the Gate 2 of the Defence Graveyard at 10am on Saturday. Soyem will be held on Sunday between Asr and Maghrib prayers for men at Abubaker Mosque behind the Defence Central Library and for women at 59B-II, 2nd Sunset Street, Phase II extension, Defence.