Ansar — you will be sorely missed

Life and death resemble the budding, blossoming and wilting flower that spreads its fragrance and the bright colours refreshing lives of many but even when it withers it has pollinated the whole garden around it with the infinite aroma, shade and colours for all times to come. This was our friend and colleague Ansar Ali Naqvi who lost his life in the PK 8303 crash on Friday.

“Death counterfeiting sleep”. Ansar’s sudden departure from the scene has left a lump in throat and unending disbelief.

In the early ’90 with the launch of The News, we started as colleagues. He was a hard-working and enthusiastic reporter in Hyderabad committed to making his mark and I was one of the news editors at Karachi. There was nothing that could sway him for his compassion for a news. I recall of a heart-wrenching incident when he had lost his son and a few hours later a hijacked airliner landed at Hyderabad. What pain could even be closer to losing one’s child, but for Ansar despite the lingering pain spent the large part of the night reporting and covering the hijacking. To his credit, also goes the expose of the Tando Bahawal incident in which an army major had gunned down several villagers and the publication of the report in The News eventually led to his court martial and subsequent execution. It was a seismic event back then but, Naqvi withstood the intense pressures without complaint, to report.

Over a period of time, the purely professional relationship had turned into a friendship. He always wore a characteristic naughty smile that was a window to his soul, cracking jokes and remaining in jovial mood engaging friends and strangers alike. But he soon realized that his potential was straitjacketed by working from Hyderabad. We together discussed ways to establish the Sindh bureau at Karachi to cover the province from the provincial capital where the top functionaries and leaders were based. But for the person yearning for excellence, the lucky break came with the launching of the Geo News and he went to places afterwards, but we did not lose the bond. Once again we were under the same roof.

TV newsroom is a beehive where every passing second matter. Against intense pressure, one has to be quick to chase, understand and break the news and all this ahead of others. Taking the reporter on a beeper or getting the footage on air, alongside a ready script and engaging the producer and anchor, all at one time needs to be done in a jiffy or else some other competing channel will have it first, something not hugely tolerated. And bringing them all together with the precision of a Swiss watch is not possible without harmony, coordination and finesse of a well-oiled machine. As an Input Controller, Ansar would take pride in managing the ceaseless news flow and breaking news, himself talking to reporters weighing it and directing the producers. He offered to work at the night shift that few voluntarily do. To juniors, he was an elder brother, fondly called Ansar Bhai, and took many of them under the feather guiding, improving and building their careers. His managerial style kept friends and junior colleagues together who would walk unhindered into his cubicle for opinion or help. With always being accessible, many times we would ask Ansar to help with a piece of news or a package the producer would ignore to timely break. Naqvi would pick the phone to tell the producer to quickly act.

He was a devoted family man. Taking pride in the achievements of his children. I remember how proud he was when his eldest child Alishba completed her Masters and when “ Sherry” his number two got into the medical school.

Ansar was working in Lahore for a few years and as the Eid neared desperately wanted to return home to the family whom he had not met ever since the lockdown. He had booked a flight on the PK 8303, but unsure if he would get a chance to fly, he decided to travel down to Karachi by road at Sehri time Thursday. But fate played its hand. It was then that he received a call telling him of confirmation of his seat in PK8303. His warmth, friendly demeanour and the mischief he would deploy to tease some would be missed. There was hardly a soul he left untouched, leaving everyone shocked, in disbelief and gloomy over his passing away.

The agony of the family eagerly waiting for father and husband coming home for Eid, is unbearable and would leave them scarred forever. A pain that perhaps only time can heal to some extent but perhaps not the void. “There are no goodbyes for us. Wherever you are, you will always be in my heart.”

The writer was Sr Executive Producer in Geo News