Afzal Khan: A fighter, an honourable journalist

Mr Mohammed Afzal Khan, one of the senior most journalists still surviving from amongst the old lot, the lot on whom the Pakistani media can be genuinely proud of, passed away in Fairfax, Virginia, on Dec 14, after a long battle with serious ailments.

Mr Khan was in his 80s and was a contemporary of our icons, IA Rehman, Nisar Usmani, Minhaj Barna, Hussain Naqi, M Ziauddin, and many others, part of a breed that is almost now extinct.

He started his career as a correspondent for the official APP in Multan and then moved through the mill to become its Washington correspondent in 1994 and later Director General. He also worked for years for the UAE daily Khaleej Times as its Pakistan correspondent.

He was a genuine and a dedicated trade unionist and was elected several times to top positions of PFUJ, despite being an employee of the government-owned news agency. He was brave and steadfast and was jailed in military regimes, fighting for freedom of the press. A great human being, a superb host and a generous person, Mr Khan was close to all left wing leaders and politicians, being one of the favourites of Benazir Bhutto.

At numerous times, he would confront and argue with Benazir on any issue, even when he was an executive of state run news agency, directly under the prime minister during BB’s tenures as PM. He never used his closeness to power corridors for his own personal or family gains like others. He earned an honest living and was proud to do so. When his youngest daughter got a job of a receptionist in the Pakistan Embassy in Washington, he never used his media clout to push her up. Or when his elder daughter got married into a politically influential family did he use that connection for himself.

As a mid-career reporter he was sent to cover the 1971 East Pakistan insurgency for state run news agency. He had to report what was published by his official agency but privately he wrote dozens of letters to his friends in Pakistan giving the real picture. He left Dhaka days before the fall and some years later his letters were published in the form of a collection by his friends. He never compromised and never misreported what he saw.

As a human being he was a great father, an ideal husband of Khalida, his hometown love with whom he spent decades until his death. Even when he was touching the 80s, he would take his wife to visits all around the world.

In 1994 he went to Washington as a state run news agency correspondent and his two sons and a daughter who studied and settled in US. But he returned to Pakistan when his tenure was over and continued to earn an honest living in Pakistan. His youngest daughter also abandoned the dual nationality and came back.

A guide, a mentor, a teacher and a leader of the journalists community in Pakistan, Mr Khan would be remembered for a long time as one of the last few committed, dedicated and more importantly honest journalists who did not sell their souls.

He has left behind two sons and two daughters and a grieving sick partner of his lifetime. His body will be flown back to Pakistan sometimes next week for a funeral and burial.

May you rest in peace Mr Khan. You will. But you will be missed.

(Written by a former The News staffer and senior journalist)