Remembering veteran journalist Abul Hasanat at the CEJ-IBA, Karachi

October 25, 2019: Friends and colleagues gathered at the Centre for Excellence in Journalism at the Institute of Business Administration (CEJ-IBA), Karachi to celebrate the life and works of veteran journalist Abul Hasanat, who passed away recently.

Talking about Hasanat sahab's honesty, sincerity, dedication and integrity at work, a former colleague Shahzad Sharjeel reminisced that once somebody called the office of Dawn newspaper and asked for an article to be stopped from getting published which made Hasanat sahab stay back for the night, making sure the article was published.

Former Program Manager CEJ-IBA Hira Siddiqui, who also worked with the late journalist at The Express Tribune, said that he taught her not just about journalism, but how to run a newspaper desk. She added, “I would not use Google to find information about Karachi’s issues or some piece of legislation, I would just ask Hasanat sahab and he would know it.”

Former Karachi Press Club Secretary, Alauddin Khanzad said, “There are very few people who, without asking for votes, work for the rights of the people and society; and Hasanat was one of them who always worked for his people.”

Also speaking at the condolence reference, former Karachi Commissioner Shafiq ur Rehman Paracha said, “We all get choices and chances in life. Hasanat had one too, he left the corporate world and joined journalism and pursued it with all the dedication and conviction required of him.”