Saif Banvi

Veteran journalist, poet, columnist and activist of Communist Party of Pakistan, Mohammed Rahim alias Saif Banvi, died in a Karachi hospital on Tuesday. He was 65.

He leaves behind wife, three sons and two daughters.

His body was brought to his ancestral town Bannu where the funeral procession was attended by people from different walks of life.

He was buried in Masoomeen graveyard in Mohammad Khan Soomro village near Abral. In pursuance of the will of the deceased, Faqeers of Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai recited his verses as well as those of Shaikh Ayaz, Baidil Faqeer and Sanwal Faqeer during his last rites. Born in Bannu, Thatta district, in 1944, Saif Banvi got his primary education from Government High School, Thatta, and secondary education from Noor Mohammad High School, Hyderabad.

He was appointed as a secondary school teacher in 1962. However, he quite the job in 1972 and joined politics.

Later, he took admission for BA honours course in English literature to the Sindh University where he joined Sindh National Students Federation, a student organisation espousing revolutionary ideology.

In 1976, Saif Banvi joined Daily Sindh News, Hyderabad as a sub-editor and later worked for different Urdu and Sindhi dailies.