RIP Rahimullah Sahab!

The death of Rahimullah Yusufzai, one of Pakistan’s most respected journalists, on September 9, has left a great void in the profession and in our hearts. In the hundreds of condolence messages and obituary write-ups that followed, most remembered Rahimullah Sahab as an expert on Afghan affairs and the man who interviewed Osama Bin Laden and Mullah Omar. But there was much more to him than this.

Earlier this year, we had invited him to deliver this year’s Razia Bhatti Memorial Lecture held online by the Centre for Excellence in Journalism (CEJ). Despite his poor health (which I learnt of later), he rose to the challenge and delivered one of the most memorable talks I have heard on the practice of journalism. Much of the credit of this lecture goes to former Newsline colleague Umber Khairi who convinced Rahimullah Sahab to share his memories with us. Soft-spoken and self-effacing in his demeanour, he candidly recalled some of his most memorable stories, shared some anecdotes but also gave some honest advice to journalists and journalism students who were in attendance in large numbers (the highest audience we recorded for any online lecture) and were clinging on to his every word.

He lamented about the absence of follow-ups in today’s journalism; and insisted that when a journalist goes to an interview, there is need to do background research on the topic and the subject. All sensible advice which is generally ignored these days by young and old alike. A more intriguing take was on the need for journalists to remain impartial. Rahimullah Sahab was of the opinion that the safety of a journalist is ensured only if they remain impartial. He was firm in his belief that when journalists took sides in stories, it affected not only their name but their safety. To give Rahimullah Sahab credit, he lived by what he preached, and his name was respected the world over for his impartiality. He was possibly the only journalist from Pakistan who every side of the Afghan conflict talked to and respected. That was his greatest strength.

The last meeting I had with Rahimullah Sahab was in April when I had gone to see him at his home in Peshawar in connection with a project our Centre was working on. In that meeting, he remembered his time in Karachi fondly. He talked about his studies at the DJ College and at Karachi University as well as his early career with The Sun newspaper. I was accompanied by my colleagues Shahzeb Ahmed and Bilal Memon, both journalists. I recounted to them how once a Mardan based illegal cigarette cartel decided to teach me a lesson following a series of articles I had done on their business. I was a junior reporter at the paper, and Rahimullah Sahab was one of our seniors. The cartel had sent a man to Karachi to “talk” to me. Rahimullah Sahab remembered the incident and smiled. After my appeal for help, he had also “talked” to someone, which saved me.

In our conversation that evening, where his son Arshad Yusufzai, himself a journalist, sat in; we talked about the need to chronicle Rahimullah Sahab’s work and to collate his articles. I insisted we do this soon as while teaching journalism it was difficult to cite local examples of good practice. To be fair, there have been many examples. The fight for democracy, for highlighting issues of the poor and forgotten, of journalists risking their lives and careers by taking the right decisions. But we have not chronicled them. I recalled to Rahimullah Sahab about his decision not to take a political appointment in 1988 when Benazir Bhutto had come to power. He had been offered a position and refused it on the grounds that a journalist should remain above politics. Rahimullah Sahab time and again set examples for us to follow. Within the community as well, Rahimullah Sahab and another senior colleague, M Ziauddin, had continued to fight for the unity of working journalists. This was a thankless and never-ending effort.

Now we have been robbed of Rahimullah Sahab; and with that we lost a wealth of information and knowledge. I pay tribute to an icon of the profession who lived by example and time and again taught us that it is still possible to be honest and impartial. Goodbye Rahimullah Sahab, we will all miss you very much!

 

Published in The Express Tribune, September 13^th, 2021.

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