THE press has virtually ignored the passing away of S.M. Fazal on Friday last. He was a senior journalist and the editor for decades of Daily News, the Jang group’s English-language evening newspaper.

I do not think Fazal was at the Daily News when I was there at its founding in 1962. The founding editor of the paper was Shameem Ahmad, who quit after a couple of months. My stay there was equally short, for I quit soon after Shameem Ahmad left.

The founding of the paper was welcomed by the public because it was the only challenge to the Evening Star, the Dawn group’s evening paper. The paper had attracted some top journalists, including Sulaiman Meenai, who later joined Dawn. After Shameem Ahmad quit, Wajid Shamsul Hassan became its editor. Fazal followed him and edited it in a way that it developed a personality of its own.

Fazal’s life was characterised by honesty, calm and a sense of humour that were all his own. More importantly, he was the kind of person who radiated goodwill. With his colleagues, he never behaved as a boss, but as one of them.

Popular with the journalist community, Fazal was elected secretary of the Karachi Press Club (KPC) and was also president of the Commonwealth Journalists’ Association’s Pakistan chapter that was founded by the late Hamdan Amjad Ali.

The death of one of his sons was a blow to Fazal, but he bore the loss with courage. The closure of the Daily News in July 2018 came as a shock to me. I wrote to Fazal and talked to him, and realised how sad he was. In his death I have lost a true friend. My deepest sympathies go to all his family members.

Muhammad Ali Siddiqi
Karachi

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2024