KARACHI: Shagufta Naaz, a senior sub-editor of Dawn, died at a private hospital here on Monday after a brief illness. She was 41.

She leaves behind her mother.

She was buried at the Gizri graveyard.

Coming from an advertising background, Shagufta joined Dawn in 2007. Having proved her creative talents quickly, she was given the charge of the newspaper’s weekly publication The Review almost immediately.

Living with thalassaemia, she would need regular blood transfusion one of the last sessions of which made her feel weak and unwell. She then started suffering from fever which was initially thought to be malaria but turned out to be dengue fever.

After having been admitted to hospital, she was also diagnosed with encephalitis, which proved to be fatal.

Shagufta was a mild, friendly and cheerful person. The news of her death saddened all those who knew her.

Her colleague Fouzia Nasir Ahmed recalled: “Shagufta loved wearing blue for some reason. I rarely saw her wearing other colours. She loved to read and was a philanthropist.”

Fouzia also mentioned how much Shagufta appreciated life. “We had gone to a mutual friend’s 30th birthday who grumbled about still being single. Returning from there, Shagufta said that our friend was being ungrateful. ‘Does she know how difficult it can be for some people to even reach their next birthday,’ she had commented.”

“Despite illness, she wanted to enjoy her life. She wanted to go on a long vacation but her condition prevented her from doing that,” Fouzia said.

“She was the only child in her maternal family of three sisters and a brother. So you can imagine how much pampered she had been at home but even that didn’t spoil her,” Fouzia added.

Aliya Baig, a childhood friend, said that Shagufta was the loveliest, happiest and most cheerful person she had ever met.

Her college friend Maleeha Hamid Siddiqui said she had led a very sheltered life. “I was surprised to know that she had not even travelled in a bus. So one day I took her on a bus ride which turned out to be a big adventure for her.”

Reema Abbasi, a former colleague, said Shagufta never said or heard anything bad about anybody. She never judged anyone.

Her mother said Shagufta would always help people. “Even if someone needed her in the middle of the night, she would go. I would worry and often tell her to be careful but she would not listen. She was a good person so God took her so soon.”

The Dawn unit of the Karachi Union of Journalists also expressed condolences over her death and termed it a great loss to the newspaper and the profession.