Friends and colleagues fondly remember Abul Hasanat at CEJ

Friends and colleagues gathered on Friday at the Centre for Excellence in Journalism at the Institute of Business Administration (CEJ-IBA), Karachi, to celebrate the life and journalistic achievements of veteran journalist Abul Hasanat, who passed away on October 5.

Talking about the late journalist’s honesty and dedication and integrity at work, his former colleague, Shahzad Sharjeel, reminisced that once somebody called the office of Dawn newspaper, where Hasanat had spent many years working as the city editor, and asked for an article to be stopped from getting published, which made him stay at office for the entire night, making sure that the article was published.

Former CEJ-IBA program manager Hira Siddiqui, who had worked with the late journalist at The Express Tribune, said he had taught her not just journalism but how to run a newspaper desk. “I would not use Google to find information about Karachi’s issues or some piece of legislation, I would just ask Hasanat sahib and he would know it.”

Former Karachi Press Club secretary Alauddin Khanzada was full of admiration for Hasanat, saying that only few people worked for the rights of the people and society without asking for votes and the late journalist was one of them.

Former Karachi commissioner Shafiq ur Rehman Paracha said at the time when Hasanat joined journalism, he could have easily chosen bureaucracy or corporate sector as his career path but the choice he made was becoming a journalist as he wanted to serve others. The late journalist’s son, Sibte Ahmed, recalled his father as someone who never wore his heart on his sleeves and being his son, he had to understand his feelings through his body language. Sibte said though he was the late journalist’s only son, he did not have any extra privilege at his home over his sisters.

The city editor of The Express Tribune, Shahzeb Ahmed, praised Hasanat, who had been working before his death as the editorial consultant with him, for his insight into politics and issues of Karachi. He recalled that before the 2018 general elections, a news story was filed which claimed that the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) were entering into an alliance for the polls.

Shahzeb said Hasanat was not satisfied with the story’s content as he thought it was not possible for the Sindhi nationalist parties to ally themselves with the MQM-P. The late journalist stopped Shahzeb from carrying that story. Some other papers carried that story but the next day, a clarification was issued by the GDA that said it had not entered into any alliance with the MQM-P, Shahzeb said.