Pakistani dailies pay tribute to Majid Nizami

Pakistani newspapers Sunday paid tributes to veteran journalist Majid Nizami, who died Saturday in a hospital in Lahore. He expressed his strong views against India's nuclear tests and the Kashmir issue.

"On India-Pakistan affairs, he took a hard line. When India conducted nuclear explosions in May 1998, he pleaded for a prompt Pakistani response," said a Dawn editorial.

Nizami was 86 and hospitalised for severe chest infection for the past three weeks. He was the editor-in-chief of the Nawai Waqt Group.

He was honoured with the highest state award for civilians, the Nishan-e-Imtiaz, for his services, and also with other distinctions for his commitment to the Kashmir cause, which arose from his conviction that a Pakistan without this territory would always be incomplete, said the News International's editorial.

It said Nizami's hard line views opposing India were criticized.

"Famously derisive of good relations with India and devoted to the idea of pan-Islamism, Majid Nizami was staunchly and unabashedly of a politically conservative bent," said the Nation's editorial.