Malik Ismail � a �disillusioned� journalist

Malik Ismail � a �disillusioned� journalist
By Naveed Miraj November 01, 2007


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One year after the murder of Malik Muhammad Ismail, one cannot help thinking about the dangers we journalists pass through and how uncertain our lives are. We have been together for twenty years and on that fateful night I was the last person to see him off to his office on our way back from a diplomatic reception.
Starting his career in the ‘70s Malik Ismail had been a figure who was friendly to most and not so to very few. A very gentle and soft spoken man he would be very helpful to young reporters and was amongst that rare breed of senior journalists who would even ask a young educated reporter to go through his own story to see if this could be improved. Most young reporters would try to be very respectful but he will insist and will accept any changes suggested.
He may not have earned too many accolades or broken too many extra-ordinary stories in his career but most people who had worked with him would agree that he was a very hard working responsible journalist. Malik Ismail would never miss a story and would travel and reach every event he had to cover even if he had to ply through public transport.
In his journalistic career Muhammad Ismail covered almost all sorts of beats. He was well known and recognized in the political circles. Malik Ismail used to have good friendly relations with most of the political leaders especially those belonging to the opposition benches.
Muhammad Ismail had worked in the media at a time when the kinds of remuneration packages paid today were just a dream. So he was also amongst the breed that lived on the bare minimum wages and supported his large family. In the last few months of his career the ever-increasing cost of living in Islamabad had forced him to shift his family to his native Attock.
The story of his life ended in an unexplained murder and his friends still today are looking for answers. The investigators have failed to explain the cause behind the gruesome assassination, and have been hiding behind frivolous theories.
We the journalists are often ‘disillusioned’ with the sense of power that our pen gives us and feel that perhaps we are safer then most. But the tragic death of Malik Ismail and the cold indifference shown by the government to the matter has once again proven us wrong.
(The writer is Bureau Chief Daily Statesman and was the last person to see off late Malik Ismail after coming back together from an embassy function on the night the veteran journalist was killed)