LAHORE, April 23: Veteran journalist Ahmad Aziz Zia, who died after a protracted illness here on Thursday, was laid to rest at the Mian Mir Graveyard on Friday afternoon. He was 80. A large number of colleagues, friends and relatives attended the funeral at his Empress Road residence.

Zia Sahib had started his journalistic career as a sub-editor at The Pakistan Times. Afterwards, he was appointed the resident editor at newspaper's Rawalpindi office. He also worked as the Progressive Papers Limited general manager.

He remained associated with the Viewpoint of Mazhar Ali Khan as printer and publisher for quite some time before rejoining The Pakistan Times in the early 80s as the executive editor.

He again left the paper due to differences with its management and joined The Nation as its executive editor when it was launched in Lahore in 1986. He left The Nation some time ago because of ill health.

During his days at The Pakistan Times, he used to teach sub-editing at the journalism department of the Punjab University. Known as A-to-Z because of his management skills, Zia Sahib was a strict disciplinarian.

He was always punctual, and people would know that it was 1pm when he would leave the office for lunch. He would always enter the classroom in the university at 8am, never allowing the students to join in even a minute later.

He has left behind a wife, Jameela Aziz, two sons and two daughters. Qul will be held at 16-Empress Road after Asr prayers on Saturday.