Veteran journalist Muhammad Zia ud-Din passes away

ISLAMABAD: Veteran journalist Muhammad Zia ud-Din passed away in Islamabad on Monday following a prolonged illness, state broadcaster Pakistan Television confirmed. He was 83.

Born in 1938 in Madras (now Chennai) city of British India, Din along with his family had migrated to East Pakistan following partition and had studied BSc in Pharmacy at the Dhaka University.

In 1960, he moved to West Pakistan and three years later, enrolled in Karachi University to study journalism.

In 1964, he joined the Pakistan Press International (PPI) — then Pakistan Press Agency (PPA) — as a cub reporter.

Later, he joined Dawn, serving as a resident editor for Islamabad and Lahore. He was also the newspaper’s correspondent in London between 2006 and 2009.

He also served in The News and now-defunct The Muslim, and remained associated with Express Tribune — which started in 2010 — as its first managing editor until 2014 when he resigned from the position to work as a freelance journalist.

Among his other experience in the field, he served as the assistant secretary general for the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and later on, as the president of the South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA) from 2002 to 2006.

PTV paid homage to the deceased for his “illustrious career” that spanned 60 years.

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said Din was one of the most “capable [and] fiercely independent journalist[s]” he had encountered.

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