By Muna Khan
LAST week, friends and colleagues of Zubeida Mustafa gathered at the journalism institute in Karachi to reminisce about the remarkable life of this remarkable journalist, editor and mentor to many. Everyone had a story to narrate about how she impacted their life by inspiring them, mentoring them or, in my case, breaking me. Let me explain: this was how I felt when I was given charge of The Review three months after joining Dawn in 2001.
I was a newbie and it was unusual for someone so new to receive a managerial position, especially as I didn’t have much to show for it, at least where Mrs Mustafa was concerned. So she was tough, with her questions and feedback such as ‘why did you run this’ or ‘not run this’. Thankfully, I had enough common sense to know she was my elder and could take certain liberties. Within a short period, the questions stopped and she was the first to admire and encourage. I said at the event that I graduated from Zubeida Mustafa’s School of Journalism where you got tough then soft l