KARACHI: Saleem Asmi, who crossed over to eternity in the early hours of Saturday just a month shy of what would have been his 86th birthday, was the seventh editor of Dawn and, perhaps, the best-suited journalist at the time to lead the paper in the new millennium. He had big shoes to fill and he did that with his characteristic professionalism and nonchalance.

Stepping into the office of the Editor at Dawn wasn’t easy as he was replacing the esteemed Ahmad Ali Khan who had been there for more than a quarter of a century and had his mark stamped on just about everything. Other than professionalism, there was hardly anything common between the two styles of editorial leadership. Asmi Sahib — as he was known to one and all in the profession — was surely cut from a different cloth, and it showed in the manner he started tweaking things at the helm.

It was under him that Dawn moved away from saying things between the lines, which it had learned and mastered per force under the dictatorship of Gen Zia-ul-Haq, and starting saying them in as many words though without compromising professional ethics.

In fact, it was a process that Asmi Sahib had initiated as the News Editor over the preceding decade, and that included initiatives in terms of layout and design that were not areas the Dawn editorial had ever felt enamoured with till then.

His tenure as the editor will forever be known among colleagues as a period of inside out adjustment of workflow as he set in motion a process of internal devolution of authority where section heads were encouraged to act like team leaders and take their own decisions.

As Zubeida Mustafa, a very senior member of the Dawn family, used to say, Asmi Sahib opened up windows in what had for long been a fortress. He surely breached that fortress and everyone was a winner in the process. Asmi Sahib had this inborn trait of making everyone feel like a winner working with him.

Born Syed Fazle Saleem Asmi in Jhansi on November 29, 1934, Asmi Sahib did away with the first two components of his name soon after completing his studies at Karachi University in 1955. He came from a highly learned and respected family, but, as his friend of many years S.M. Shahid has written in a biographical sketch, titled ‘A Marxist Sufi’ (Living Souls), Asmi Sahib just did not want to talk about his forefathers, insisting that he should be taken solely for what he was and what his ideals were.

But it was undeniable that hailing from a family of seriously literate individuals had refined and enriched his personality. And the process was surely facilitated further by his association with the likes of Haider Bux Jatoi at one end of the spectrum, and Hasan Askari at the other. This respect for intellect regardless of the school of thought defined and in subsequent years underlined one of the strongest streaks in Asmi Sahib’s personality; his passion for human rights.

It was this streak that had seen him protesting under the banner of Democratic Students Federation (DSF) in the mid-1950s and then in prison in the late 1970s when he was dismissed from his job at the Pakistan Times by the Zia regime. But he was in good company in jail alongside stalwarts, like among others, S.G.M. Badruddin, Nisar Osmani and Aziz Siddiqui.

When he returned from the Khaleej Times in Dubai, where he headed the newsroom in the mid-1980s after having spent about 25 years in the profession with leading newspapers of the time, he not only joined Dawn, but also the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) where, as vice-chairman, he worked closely with Dorab Patel, the then chairman, and Asma Jahangir, the secretary. It was only natural that under his editorship, Dawn had a particular focus on human rights and that trend has survived to date.

What he also brought with him from Dubai was a taste for the finer things in life, like paintings, music, books etc. He was always fond of the ‘softer’ elements of life, but Dubai gave him the opportunity to indulge, and he made the most of it. At Dawn, his taste reflected in two satellite publications he initiated; ‘Gallery’ and ‘Books & Authors’.

Asmi Sahib’s longest professional association was with Dawn and he reached the pinnacle of whatever the profession at large had on offer. Once he bowed out, he took a clean separation from active journalism though his news sense could never be doubted in any discussion. He had grown frail in his last few years, brought down by this ailment or that, but his mental faculties — and, indeed, the wit — remained sharp as ever.

It is but impossible to look back at his immensely successful career and life and not feel haunted by the realisation that he only lived up to a mere half of his potential; a potential that was visible even to the blind in the newsroom. What might have been the case had he used a bit more of it? The thought will always haunt his friends and disciples alike.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2020