Founding father of PFUJ dies at 89

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published: 7 October 2012

Asrar Ahmad, a veteran journalist and founding secretary general of PFUJ, passed away in Rawalpindi at the age of 89. He was renowned for his contributions to trade unionism in Pakistan's newspaper industry.

Summary

ISLAMABAD: Asrar Ahmad, a veteran journalist and a pioneer of trade unionism in Pakistan’s newspaper industry died in Rawalpindi Saturday. He was 89.

According to Dawn, Asrar had retired from active journalism as United Press International’s Pakistan bureau chief. He laid the foundations of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and was its founding secretary general and later its president.

The paper said he was an upright man who lived an austere life spending long years encamped in a room in a Rawalpindi hostel that served both as home and office. He did not marry.

Respected for his skills as a journalist, it was trade union that provided Asrar with a platform to display his qualities as a leader.

Dawn said he was the moving spirit behind a famous 42-day strike by the workers of the Sindh Observer. Afterwards he emerged as one of the most committed pioneering leaders of the PFUJ.

Asrar started his career in journalism as a sub-editor with Dawn in 1946. After partition he came to Karachi and joined the Sindh Observer as a reporter. He later moved to The Pakistan Times before becoming the bureau chief of the now defunct American wire service UPI for over 35 years.