THE death of journalist Aali Rizvi marks the closure of another chapter of traditional decency and classical competence in journalism besides depriving a host of newspaper people of a fellow professional they could be proud of in every respect.

He was a source of pride for all because he was above rivalries, remarkably non-controversial, totally above board in his personal and professional dealings, affectionate and sympathetic towards colleagues and, of course, a professional of wide ranging authority.

While I personally knew him as a senior acquaintance in journalism, television brought me close to him in 1964 when we started weekly news and views programme titled Akhbar-o-Akhbar from the experimental TV station at Lahore. We wanted to have representation from both Urdu and English language press but had no system or method for finding out the quality of participants before hand; they had to put on trail on air in a period when recording facilities were not available to the new medium.

There were a number of genuinely competent professionals in the field those days and it turned out that most of them were sufficiently confident and eloquent, in addition to their command on national and international affairs, to establish their presence on the small screen.

Some of the early commentators of television, Zaheer Babar, A.T. Chaudhry, Zahoor Alam Shaheed are sadly no more among us. Another television personality of that period, Syed Amjad Husain is not well. Aali Rizvi was one of the last giants of that glorious era of journalism to fall. He died in Lahore on Wednesday evening.

He had all the qualities that make a television programmer who is instantly accepted by viewers: a pleasant personality, command over language, ability to quickly marshal his thoughts and arguments in a straightforward manner and present his arguments in a convincing manner. He was not pedantic or arrogant, simply natural and down top earth. There was a touch of quietly graceful flamboyance to him that made his presence on the screen all the more authentic and impactful. We liked to use him as compere because of his balanced views and ability to link arguments of other participants in a cohesive whole.

Aali Rizvi’s forte in journalism was editorial writing and he excelled in it because he could quickly pen a piece that precisely discussed the issue and put it across in easily comprehensible style, each word in its right place and each sentence furthering his argument and leading towards a conclusion. But that wasn’t the sum total of his class as a journalist.

He could guide the news desk, reporters and feature writers as well and journalists often sought his professional guidance; he provided it as a matter of routine and with a sense of responsibility.

All in all, he was an institution without ever treating himself as superior though he was head and shoulders above most others in journalism; his was a low profile unassuming personality but his impact on journalism, particularly Urdu journalism and journalists was great. Such men have become a rarity in most spheres of life and journalism is no exception.