Born on November 9 1936 into a highly educated family in Dehradoon, India, Mirza, who left daily Dawn last year, had been suffering from cancer for the past many months. His condition deteriorated over the last six months despite several medical interventions.
"I wish I could have also written an obituary on Khan Saheb," Mirza Sahib, as he was widely known, told this writer at DHA's Sultan Mosque where he had come to attend the soyem of former Editor-in-Chief of Dawn Ahmad Ali Khan. "I could not write even a few lines despite several attempts," said Mirza Saheb with a deep tinge of sadness.
His inability to write because of the debilitating disease he had been suffering from was something he was not willing to accept as a fait accompli as he had spent most part of his journalistic career that spanned over half a century as a prolific writer.
It is said that editorship is not only about ideas, it is also about motivation, drive, and even cajoling and harassment of colleagues, Mirza Saheb had not fared as a strong administrator during his editorship that lasted about three years. But there's no denying the fact that Mirza Sahib had a fertile mind and a heart for writing to translate what he observed around him into written words on newspaper's broadsheets in an effective and meaningful manner.
He continued writing even after his retirement from the newspaper mid last year. His articles continued to appear on a variety of subjects, particularly those relating to current issues such as Balochistan, providing readers deep insights into what he had been penning with a facility.
While studying at Lucknow University from where he did his graduation Mirza Saheb secured a job in subcontinent's prestigious daily Pioneer. Since his arrival in Pakistan in the 1950s, he worked for a number of publications, which included The Times of Karachi, Pakistan Times, Morning News, Civil & Military Gazette and Khaleej Times (Dubai). He also worked for the BBC in the late 1970s and the early 1980.
Mirza Saheb was a widely travelled journalist not only because he had accompanied presidents and prime ministers on their foreign tours, but also he had spent many years in various parts of the world as a full-time working journalist. Besides working in Karachi and Lahore, he worked in the then East Pakistan.
He lived for several years in London while working for the BBC. His longest overseas assignment was in Dubai where he worked for Khaleej Times as its Leader Writer and later as its Executive Editor. His last overseas engagement was in Washington DC where he represented Dawn as its correspondent.
I vividly remember his arrival in Lahore from Dubai as Dawn's Bureau Chief in 1994. Since Lahore was his city where he already had a network of friends and relations, Mirza Saheb became a highly respectable and adorable personality among his colleagues in no time. Mirza Saheb later left Lahore for the US, but he came back to Karachi about five years ago where he breathed his last.
Though Mirza Saheb had spent a good deal of his life in Lahore, he would hardly speak in Punjabi. He scolded one of his colleagues who had "criticised" him for not speaking in Punjabi, by putting a question to him that in which language they communicate with their children.
Mirza Saheb became highly dejected when the National Press Trust ignored him for editorship. Perhaps this was the time when he decided to not only quit Pakistan Times and join Viewpoint of Mazhar Ali Khan on Faiz Ahmed Faiz's advice. He left the country in the late 1970s to join BBC in London.
According to one of Mirza Saheb's close friends who had worked with him at various places, Saleem Asmi, also a former Editor of Dawn, Mirza Saheb always enjoyed very enviable health throughout life until he was afflicted by the deadly disease. Alas, a handsome journalist endowed with excellent writing skills is no longer among us.