Journalist Sadaf Naeem, who was covering PTI’s Long March on Sunday, was crushed to death after she tripped from a container that was part of Imran Khan’s convoy. She was 40.

Naeem, a mother of two, had been with the convoy since it gathered at Liberty Chowk, Lahore. She was on duty, reporting for Channel 5.

Naeem was born into a middle-class household in Ichhra, Lahore. She received her early education at Divisional Public Sschool, Model Town, Lahore. Later, she attended the Hamayat-i-Islam College for further studies. Her father is said to have been a businessman.

Naeem started her career as a model. She modelled for a host of local brands, before taking up a full-time job as a journalist with the Khabrain/ Channel 5 Group in 2009.

Naeem worked as a showbiz reporter in the beginning. She hosted a show, titled Puranay Geet Purani Ghazal, on Channel 5. Later, she changed her beat to sports and, eventually, to politics. She would usually cover political events for her media outlet. She also regularly reported the Punjab Assembly sessions.

Apart from this, she was a writer, with a number of newspaper articles and magazine features to her credit. Most of her colleagues and people from the fraternity swore by her professionalism. They also talked of her as a mild, soft-spoken, humble and kindhearted person. Her spouse, Naeem Bhatti, is said to be a cameraman who makes both ends meet by videoing the wedding ceremonies. The couple had tied the knot in the year 2000. They had two children. Their eldest, a girl, just turned 20.

According to Bhatti, on the ill-fated day, the children wanted their mother to stay home so that they could celebrate the birthday: “The children said, ‘Mama, don’t go to work today; we’ll miss you!’ But she told them that she had to report [the event]. She reassured them they she’d try her best to make it back soon.”

The day Sadaf Naeem was killed happened to be the birthday of one of her children. According to Bhatti, on the ill-fated day, the children wanted their mother to stay home so that they could celebrate the birthday: “The children said, ‘Mama, don’t go to work today; we’ll miss you!’ But she told them that she had to report [the event]. She assured them that she’d try her best to make it back soon.”

When the PTI started the march at Liberty Chowk in Lahore, Sadaf Naeem was among the journalists allowed by the party administration to interview Imran Khan.

Shakeel Ahmed, a senior producer at Channel 5, recalls how Naeem “came back after the interview [with Imran Khan], overcome with joy!”

A former colleague, Faisal Butt, says Naeem was facing serious financial crisis. He says she hadn’t received her salary for more than three months. “The situation at her home was so bad that she had started considering quitting [journalism],” he adds.

According to Butt, her employer’s failure to provide her official transport forced her to walk long distances.

Butt also claims that Naeem had told him that she was going to take a long break from work as soon as the Long March was over.

The writer is a senior journalist. He can be reached at ahsanzia155@gmail.com