First things first, writing an obituary of your present or former employer is perhaps the most formidable tasks a trained and not-so-trained obituary writer confronts for obituary writing requires the ability to reframe tragedy into a compelling narrative. This writer, therefore, is not just faced with a problem, but a profound paradox at this point in time.

The scion of a very well-known Zuberi family, media entrepreneur and seasoned economic analyst Arshad A. Zuberi (AAZ) passed away yesterday evening after a protracted illness. His 73rd birth anniversary was celebrated nearly six months ago.

He leaves behind wife, two sons, a daughter and five grandchildren to mourn his death. His younger son, Ahmed, is himself a noted media business person like his (AAZ’s) two male siblings—Wamiq, Asif, and a nephew, Ahad.

AAZ had been battling with some critical health challenges for the past many years. His condition suddenly deteriorated a week ago after he contracted pneumonia and ultimately departed to meet his Maker.

AAZ was the Deputy Chief Executive of Business Recorder newspaper that owes its rise and eminence to him for he had played different productive roles for it—publisher, printer, and an erudite commentator on all the matters relating to economics and finance—, creating and consolidating a loyal readership base of the newspaper that specializes in economic, financial, and business news, offering analyses and news on local, regional and global markets, corporate developments at home and abroad, and, above all, national economic policies.

The list of AAZ’s achievements—honours, awards and workplace accomplishments— is quite extensive and impressive, so to speak. He, for example, remained secretary general of All Pakistan Newspaper Society (APNS) for different terms, one of the founders of Pakistan Broadcasters Association (PBA), a regular part of Pakistan’s delegations to the IMF, World Bank, WTO, and ILO meetings, and member of various forums and institutions in the country such as Economic Advisory Council, Federal Board of Revenue, State Bank of Pakistan, in advisory capacity.

He was, above all, a kind of kingmaker who brought many to power through the exercise of his political influence that he exerted as media baron and a highly informed commentator having immense dexterity in the subjects on which he expressed his views freely for nearly four decades as a prolific writer.

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Veteran journalist Arshad Zuberi passes away in Karachi

Veteran journalist Arshad Zuberi laid to rest in Karachi

The second child of senior newspaper editor M A Zuberi, AAZ completed his intermediate at Adamjee Science College, a college in Karachi which still has the reputation of accommodating and attracting top graders, before he went to the US where he completed his graduation in Mechanical Engineering. AAZ couldn’t do masters as he had to come back to his family’s fledgling business project, Business Recorder newspaper, as his father desperately needed him to look after the management and production aspects of the enterprise for MA Zuberi had no experience or inclination whatsoever to enter into these fields of newspapering as he still wanted to continue and pursue his journalistic career as non-owner editor, although he had himself launched this newspaper after leaving Dawn, a newspaper that he had joined in Delhi and worked for it for several years.

AAZ was a great admirer of global leaders such as Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, Narasimha Rao, and Dr Manmohan Singh.

He literally idolized the first woman prime minister of Europe for, according to him, being principled and unafraid to stand up for her values and goals, although she was admired and hated in equal measure. Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek had always been a major source of inspiration and guidance for him as AAZ knew too well that the revival of global interest in the work of Hayek, who won his Nobel Prize in 1974, actually constituted one of the precursors of Thatcherism in Britain.

Milton Friedman, a monetarist, too, was deeply revered by AAZ. This conservative economist’s famous proclamation “There is one and only one social responsibility of business — to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game” was AAZ’s life-long guiding principle.

Enthusiastically, he would often add to what Friedman said by stating that ‘‘you do social responsibility works only when you earn profit and without profit you cannot act in the best interests of marginalized segments of society as a whole’’. Like his late father, AAZ would often advocate for greater need for wealth creation in the country as a national goal and objective, but with the caveat that nobody can create wealth by just earning more money or profits as he or she will be required to take certain steps that strictly align with financial goals.

AAZ always lamented that he wasn’t a trained economist per se as he was not among those who have specific or formal training in economics. But he was a reasonable monetarist in his own right who always treated economic problems as technical challenges. He, therefore, urged every government in the last three decades to commit itself to a monetarist economic strategy.

All finance ministers and prime ministers, except for Shaukat Aziz (finance minister and later became prime minister) perhaps, heeded, albeit reluctantly, AAZ’s advice. For Shaukat Aziz, however, AAZ was a ‘‘mine of information’’ and therefore always a source of best advice.

He would be often commenting on State Bank of Pakistan’s quarterly or annual reports and the points on which he would often base his argument wouldn’t be the normal text of a report but the footnotes to the text. That is why perhaps he was always valued by all the governors of the central bank and their research teams. Communism or radical socialism never appealed to him for various reasons.

He was opposed to Marxism so much so that he, in this writer’s view, consciously underestimated all of Karl Marx’s concepts, including ‘Asiatic mode of production’, commodities, capital and class struggles.

He was deadly against formation of unions and union activities in the newspaper industry for he was of the considered opinion that the role played by unions does not instil confidence in the minds of employees and employers alike.

Last but not least, armed with a happy demeanour, AAZ was a socialite as he was famous for going to a lot of parties and social event until he became incapacitated due to a neurological disorder. But a neatly-dressed AAZ was still going to work on his own volition and his regular presence on his desk in his office was a matter of great satisfaction for all and sundry. A beaming AAZ lived joyfully even he suffered from pain. May Almighty God always shower His blessings on the departed soul. Aameen

This obituary was written by Sarfaraz Ahmed and first published in Business Recorder.