The deadly covid-19 has globally struck the people and even after more than one and a half years of turmoil, the disease is still walloping people.
Ghazi Salahuddin, a Pakistani journalist, writer, literary figure, and scholar of political science suffered the loss of three siblings in one wicked sweep of covid-19.
While speaking his heart out, Salahuddin wrote an article in The News and maintained that his condition was beyond explanation and he was at a loss for words.
Read Also
Larkana Hospital Shows Downright Condition of Bilawal’s Constituency
“I had read a lot about the value of relationships in life. I am now able to certify the veracity of multiple research projects in this context”, he wrote.
The journalist expressed his love for the extended family that has shown immense support for each other in this crucial time.
“I have to say that my struggle to cope with this terrible bereavement was eased a bit when I reminded myself that this pandemic has devastated so many families across the world. Many of us have suffered the agony of parting with very dear and irreplaceable individuals. Three siblings going together may be exceptional but the havoc caused by this virus, we know, is widespread”.
Ghazi Salahuddin, who lost three siblings in a very short span, shared that his siblings embarked on their eternal journey in ascending order, age-wise.
“First to go was my youngest brother Asif Akhtar. The next Wednesday, June 9, younger sister Fehmida Moin left us. She was a former lecturer in chemistry at St. Joseph’s College for Girls in Karachi. Dr Aquila Islam, the eldest of us though physically most fragile, bravely fought her battle until Wednesday this week”.
The writer expressed that his family at present is in a state of mourning that is not easy to decipher as his siblings breathed their last without anyone around them.
“In the middle of May, a grim tragedy began to take root in Dubai where a group of the family met for Eid vacations at my nephew’s house – a house that had frequently resonated with joyous get-togethers. After days of late-night chatter and happy memories, the virus struck this happy abode, and eventually the three siblings were caught in the web of Covid-19”, he wrote.
The most upsetting thing for the journalist was that all three siblings were buried in a forlorn location, very far from home due to covid-19.
Ghazi Salahuddin summed up his piece of writing with a tribute to her elder sister Dr Aquilla Islam who was the first Pakistani woman who had a PhD in nuclear physics.
“She was the only female among 120 graduate students in McMaster University’s physics department. She had completed her doctorate from McMasters University in Canada, which had its own reactor, in four years in the 1970s – a record at that time. I always marveled at her erudition and clarity of thought. But it was as a human being that she truly excelled”.