Transition: Ex-diplomat Qutubuddin Aziz passes away

Pakistan Movement stalwart wore many hats throughout his life

KARACHI: Former diplomat and Pakistan Movement stalwart Qutubuddin Aziz died of cardiac arrest on Saturday night. He was 86. His daughter Samina Iqbal Qasim made the announcement on her Facebook page.

Journalist, writer, lecturer, broadcaster, social worker – Aziz wore many hats throughout his life. Before joining the government in 1977, he served as managing editor of the United Press (UP) of the Pakistan News Service.

He worked for the Pakistan Embassy in London as public relations minister from January 1978 to March 1979 and as information minister from December 1980 to February 1986.

In May 1986 he was appointed as chairman of the semi-government National Press Trust (NPT) in Pakistan.

Before UP, he was a commentator on national and international affairs for Radio Pakistan from 1953 to 1958 and from 1962 to 1977. He was also a Pakistan correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor from 1965 to 1977. The daily published more than 500 of his stories. During his diplomatic postings in London, major British newspapers published more than 150 of his letters in defence of Pakistan.

His book ‘Blood and Tears’ – first published in 1974 by the publications division of the United Press of Pakistan – is dedicated to the hundreds of thousands of men, women and children who were killed or maimed in the Awami League’s rebellion and genocide and the Mukti Bahini’s 1971 reign of terror in East Pakistan.

The book includes 170 eyewitness accounts of the atrocities committed on West Pakistanis, Biharis and other non-Bengalis and pro-Pakistan Bengalis in 55 towns of East Pakistan.

After his body arrives from the US, Aziz’s funeral will be held on Monday (today) following the Zuhr prayers at Masjid-e-Usman, located near the Clifton beach.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 7^th,  2015.