HARIPUR: Renowned poet, journalist and educationist Prof Qazi Jamil died of coronavirus here on Friday night. He was 71.

Qazi Jamil was admitted to the coronavirus ward of the Haripur District Headquarters Hospital about two weeks ago when his condition worsened. He remained on ventilator for over a week but could not survive and breathed his last on Friday night.

He was laid to rest in his ancestral graveyard in Sera-i-Saleh on Saturday.

Qazi Jamil was paternal grandson of renowned Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind activist of Qazi Aziz ur Rehman, who launched weekly Urdu newspaper ‘Paigham-i-Sarhad’ from Haripur in late 30s. The weekly later was made a daily and kept on publishing till 1971 when Qazi Aziz passed away.

Prof Qazi Jamil restored the newspaper’s publication after a break of six years and edited it till 1979 when its declaration was cancelled during the Zia era. Qazi Jamil later joined the education department as lecturer of Urdu and got retired as professor from Government Postgraduate College for Boys, Haripur, in 2009.

Qazi Jamil was famous among his friends for his witty nature. He was also a poet and has several ‘nazams’ and ‘ghazals’ to his credit.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2021