Poet, educationist Prof Qazi Jamil dies

HARIPUR: Renowned poet, journalist and educationist Prof Qazi Jamil-ur-Rehman died here Friday night.

He was 71 and left behind a widow and three sons. Qazi Jamil was admitted to Corona Ward of Haripur DHQ Hospital about two weeks ago when his condition worsened and he tested Corona-positive. He remained on ventilator for more than a week but could not survive and breathed his last Friday night and Dr Mehvish, in-charge Corona Ward, confirmed his cause of death as Corona-positive.

He was buried in his ancestral graveyard of Sera-e-Saleh on Saturday where poets, journalists, teachers, his former students and local people attended his funeral prayer.

Qazi Jamil was paternal grandson of renowned activist of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind Qazi Aziz-ur-Rehman who also served Maulana Johar Ali Khan as his secretary for a long time. Late Qazi Aziz-ur-Rehman launched weekly Urdu newspaper Paigham-e-Sarhad from Haripur in late 30s, which later changed into a daily newspaper and kept on publishing till 1971 when Qazi passed away.

Prof Qazi Jamil restored the newspaper’s publication after a break of six years and edited it till 1979 when its declaration was cancelled for publishing an article against the martial law and Ziaul Haq. Qazi Jamil later joined the education department as a lecturer of Urdu and retired as professor from Government Postgraduate College for boys, Haripur during 2009.