Pakistan’s first woman correspondent Shahida Kazi passes away

Pakistan's first woman correspondent, veteran Pakistani journalist, and academic Shahida Kazi passed away at the age of 79 in Karachi.  

She had been ailing and undergoing treatment at Karachi's Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital. Her funeral prayer will be offered following her last rites in Zuhr, after which the late journalist will be laid to rest at the KU graveyard.

In 1944, Shahida Kazi was born in the family of a renowned scholar Allama Kazi II in Karachi. Her family belongs to a village situated near Dadu in Sindh. She completed her matriculation from St. Lawrence Convent School and later graduated from St. Joseph’s College in 1963.

As her family encouraged women to get advanced education, it was easy for her to go the university to complete her higher studies.

Unlike her female cousins, she did not pursue her career in the medicine field and also turned down the opportunity to appear in the Superior Services examination to join the federal bureaucracy.

She was interested in English literature but applied to the then newly established department of journalism at the University of Karachi where she realised that she was not the only female student in the department but, she was also the first-ever female who had taken admission into the field of journalism.

In 1966 she was offered a job by the then-city editor of Dawn, one of the leading English daily newspapers.

She was also the first female at work back then, and till her last breath, she firmly believed that the role of the press in reporting is better than channels. She has also worked as a news producer, and senior news editor at Pakistan Television Corporation for long 20 years, she also works for Radio Pakistan.

Later, she joined academia, and became a part of the University of Karachi and also served a few private sector universities after her retirement from the KU.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Professor Kazi decided to stay at home and finally draw curtains to her shining and decades-long career, and start writing memories of her life.

In February this year, she also launched her autobiography, titled ‘Sweet, Sour & Bitter: A life well lived’, which is a brief account of her life and experience in around 100 pages, at the Karachi Press Club in the presence of her hundreds of students, who are now working in various media outlets, faculty members of different varsities that teach journalism and mass communication, human rights activists and veteran journalists.

Meanwhile, KU Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Khalid Mahmood Iraqi expressed his deep sorrow and grief over the death of renowned journalist and former chairperson of the KU Department of Mass Communication Professor Shahida Kazi.

He said that Kazi was a bright chapter of journalism, a loving teacher, and a noblewoman.