Sabihuddin Ghausi

Sabihuddin Ghausi was a Pakistani journalist and an activist. He was active for the cause of the journalistic community. He was known for his moral positions. He was posthumously awarded a Business Reporting Award, worth 100,000 Pakistani rupees, for his journalism.

Ghausi was born in Ahmedabad, in the state of Gujarat, India. His father was a sessions judge at Junagadh High Court and also served as revenue commissioner in Manavadar. After partition the family migrated to Pakistan. Ghausi received his B.A degree from Islamia College, Karachi and M.A degree from the University of Karachi. He began his career as an officer in the Habib Bank, but he resigned and joined journalism in 1970.

Ghausi started his journalistic career joining daily Sun, his first newspaper job in 1970. He also worked for PPI, Business Recorder, Morning News and Muslim. Later he joined the daily Dawn in 1988, till his death. He was respected for his credibility, courage and commitment by the Karachi's journalist community. He was elected four times as president of Karachi Press Club and two times as president of the Karachi Union of Journalists. He was jailed during Zia-ul-Haq’s military rule and lost his job. He remained active and also took part against the former military ruler Pervez Musharraf’s crackdown on the media.

He was also a good speaker and interviewer.

Journalist Amir Zia wrote:

"He often painted a bleak and dismal picture of the state of affairs in Pakistan. His sense of loss of the disappearances of all the values dear to him – from social and individual liberties to freedom of expression, democracy and human rights – was great. Stories by Qurratulain Haider, the poetry of Habib Jalib, tales of his favourite city Mumbai, the tragedy of Bangladesh, military rule and democracy were some of Ghausi’s favourite and recurring topics."

He died in Karachi in 2009 at the age of 65.

Aaj News Posted on 27th March 2009 :

Former KPC and KUJ president Ghausi dies

Senior journalist and former president of Karachi Press Club and Karachi Union of Journalists Sabihuddin Ghausi, 65, died on Thursday morning after a short but serious illness. He leaves behind wife and a large number of friends and admirers to mourn his death.

Ghausi made his presence felt as a reporter and an analyst in the economic field as well as political and social arenas. He started his career as a journalist with Sun, Karachi. He later worked as a free-lance journalist for various political and economic weekly journals, both in Urdu and English before he joined Daily Business Recorder where he worked for about two years.

His association with Dawn began some two decades ago. There he worked on various positions such as incharge of newspaper’s economic and business section and city editor. He grew up with every new responsibility.

As a member of journalist fraternity he always remained in frontlines against every attack on freedom of press as well as the rights of workers of the newspaper industry. For his strong commitment to freedom of press, he was imprisoned and rendered jobless. Ghausi would be greatly remembered for his electric enthusiasm for his work, his commitment to professional and social causes, and above all his inspiring and fun-filled presence.

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