Senior journalist Habibur Rahman passes away

PESHAWAR: Senior journalist Habibur Rahman breathed his last after prolonged illness here on Monday. He was 77.

The funeral prayer will be offered at the University of Peshawar Hockey Ground today (Tuesday) at 9.30 am. His body will be shifted to Rawalpindi where his funeral prayer will be offered at Liaqat Bagh at 3pm. He will be laid to rest at Dhok Elahi Graveyard in Rawalpindi.

The deceased was the brother of senior journalist and bureau chief of daily Jang, Rawalpindi, Tahir Khalil, Hafiz Saleem Khalil, Hafiz Naseem Khalil, Hafiz Aamir Khalil and lawyer SA Rahman. He was the father of Senior Director, Frontier Education Foundation, Dr Mujibur Rahman Tahir, Samina Riaz, Safina Tanveer, Tehmina Habib, Civil Judge Beenish Shah and father-in-law of Professor Dr Zille Huma, head of the Art and Design Department of the Home Economics College of University of Peshawar.

Habibur Rahman remained associated with journalism for 57 years. He served various Urdu media organisations in different parts of the country. He was born at Ambala in India in 1940. His family migrated to Pakistan when he was only seven years-old and started living in Rawalpindi. He received early education in Rawalpindi and obtained his Master's degree in Urdu literature.

Habibur Rahman started his journalistic career as Sub-Editor in daily Naqoosh Rawalpindi in 1959. He later joined daily Taajir and daily Tameer.

In 1965, he shifted to Peshawar and joined the daily Anjam. The newspaper ceased publication on August 1, 1967 and was later revived as daily Mashriq.

He became News Editor of daily Mashriq in 1971. He was promoted to Chief News Editor in 1989 and served in Mashriq till 1998.

He served as Chief News Editor of daily Maidan, a sister publication of The Frontier Post, for three years (1998-2001). He joined another Urdu daily Aaj, Peshawar in 2002 and remained associated with it until death He had been suffering from kidney problem for the last five years.