TORONTO, 4 May — North America-based Pakistani journalists and writers received the news of the death of Farooq Mazhar, a well-known sports writer and hockey commentator, with great pain and expressed their grief and sorrow over the loss of what they called a ‘very good friend.’
“I’m shocked. Farooq was a very good friend,” said Syed Ali Kabir, a former sports correspondent of daily Dawn. “I did not believe that Farooq would leave us so soon. I was shocked when I read the sad news about his death,” Kabir said in Houston where Mazhar was to get specialists’ treatment. Mazhar, 65, a former sports editor of Pakistan Times, Lahore, and the daily Sun of Karachi, died in a Bahrain hospital Saturday. His body is likely to be flown to Lahore for burial.
Mazhar, also a former resident editor of The News in Islamabad, was being flown to Houston nearly 10 days ago by a PIA flight, and according to newspaper reports, the flight had to make an unscheduled landing in Bahrain to admit him to a hospital. He had suffered a stroke and attack of paralysis before reaching the hospital. He was already suffering from lung cancer.
Farooq’s wife, Khaleda Mazhar, a former PTV News director, and his two children — a son and a daughter — were living in Houston. They all rushed to Bahrain last week.
Mazhar had recently accompanied the Pakistan cricket team to New Zealand and returned home very sick.
Syed Kabir, who recently moved to Houston after a successful heart surgery in Toronto, said he had covered several international sports events in and outside Pakistan with Farooq Mazhar whom he always found a good companion.
Tariq Fatah, a former news producer of Pakistan Television, was in tears when he heard the news of Farooq’s death. “It’s difficult to overcome the shock. Farooq Mazhar taught me sports journalism. For me he was like my elder brother,” he said.
Tariq Fatah had worked with Farooq on sports desk of daily Sun in early 1970s before joining the PTV. Later he moved to Saudi Arabia before immigrating to Canada nearly 13 years ago.
Hassan Bozai, a former photo editor of daily Dawn and Khaleej Times of Dubai also expressed his heartfelt sorrow over the sad demise and said Farooq was a jewel of a person.
Secretary of the Toronto-based Writers Forum Mr. Munir Pervez also condoled the death of Farooq Mazhar.
