Jamil Jalibi’s death termed a national loss

Academicians expressed their deep grief over the demise of renowned scholar Prof Dr Jamil Jalibi on Thursday. Prof Jalibi died after a protracted illness here on Thursday morning. He was 89.

Vice Chancellor University of Karachi Prof Dr Muhammad Ajmal Khan has termed the death of Prof Dr Jamil Jalibi, former vice chancellor of the varsity, a national loss, and said the nation has lost a man of wisdom and knowledge.

Pn his condolence message, Prof Khan paid tribute to the great scholar and said Prof Jalibi achieved a great literary feat and was a great scholar of Urdu literature, researcher, writer, critic and educationist.

He made great endeavours to strengthen the knowledge of Urdu literature, while the compilation of a Qaumi English-Urdu Dictionary was one of his historic works, he said, adding that his book on Pakistani culture received a wide recognition in the literary circles.

Prof Jalibi’s four volumes of Tareekh-e-Adab-e-Urdu (the history of Urdu literature) is one of greatest works in Urdu literature, which made him a legendary scholar in the history of the literature, he said.

By writing a book titled “Arastoo Se Elliot Tak (From Aristotle to Elliot), comprising the best English critic essays, Prof Jalibi outshone other scholars in the field of translations too. He also served as vice chancellor of the University of Karachi during 1983 to 1987.

Prof Khan said the late scholar had donated his distinctive personal library, which was really a pride for the largest university of Pakistan. The university was setting up a separate library to accommodate the personal library of the former vice chancellor, he said.

The death of Prof Jalibi had caused a great loss to Urdu literature, critics, linguistics and literary research, he said and observed that this national loss could not be repaired at all.

Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Syed Altaf Hussain said that Prof Jalibi was one of the greatest scholars who tirelessly served the Urdu language. His death was a great loss for the country as well as for the academia but his name would be always alive in history, he said. Prof Hussain condoled with the bereaved family over the death of Prof Jalibi.