KARACHI, Oct 14: Senior journalist and former Dawn staffer Mushtaq Memon died from complications of stomach cancer on Friday evening. He was 64. Though born into a well-to-do Karachi family, Mr Memon always remained a diehard Marxist and took pride in working alongside - and for the cause of - the working class.

Left-wing politics was a burning passion with him during his student days in the University of Karachi as well as during his various stints with news organizations and newspapers. He disliked holding offices in political organizations. Well respected in the journalist community, he never held office at the Karachi Press Club, though he took a great deal of interest in its affairs and spent his evenings there.

Mr Memon joined the Pakistan Press International in 1967 only to leave it following the 1970 countrywide strike of journalists. Political activism took him away from journalism for a while and he lived among labourers and the downtrodden.

He rejoined the PPI in the late 1970s. As PPI bureau chief in Quetta, he asked army officials probing questions at a post-martial law press conference in 1977. Few were surprised when he was exiled from the city.

Following brief stints with the Sun and Business Recorder, Mr Memon joined Dawn. He held senior positions at the newspaper, which he left early this year for health reasons. Though he wrote infrequently, his write-ups against imperialism bore ample testimony to his acute political consciousness at a time when he was too enfeebled to take part in active politics.

Mr Memon will be buried at the Mewashah graveyard after Zuhr prayers on Saturday. Mourners will gather for the funeral at the residence of Senator Nisar Memon, younger brother of the deceased, at the main Khyaban-i-Sehar opposite 17st Street, Defence Housing Society Phase VI.