WISCONSIN/QUETTA: Pakistan’s Veteran Journalist Siddiq Baluch passed away at Karachi’s Liaquat National Hospital on Tuesday. Doctors pronounced him dead at 2:00 am.

He died at the age of 78 after battling pancreatic cancer for six years. The cause of the death was said to be vital organ failure. Baluch left behind five sons and three daughters.

The messages of condolences poured in on social media and people personally contacted the grieving family after news of his death was announced. The journalism community, politicians, lawyers, poets and government officers from different parts of Pakistan and the world have sent condolence messages. Many termed the death as a great loss for Balochistan as Baluch remained vocal on Balochistan’s political and economic issues.

Siddiq Baluch was editing The Daily Balochistan Express and Daily Azadi, in Quetta. He founded Daily Balochistan Express in 1990 with a mission to give voice to the voiceless people of Balochistan. After over a decade, he founded The Urdu Daily Azadi Quetta. The objective was to provide people of Balochistan with a platform of English and Urdu newspapers.

He founded the English Daily after spending 30 prolific years at The Daily Dawn. He introduced Balochistan to the English reading audience through his extraordinary journalistic work.

It was the first ever English Daily edited by Baloch editor. After America and its allied forces had overthrown in Afghanistan in 2002, his newspaper was digitalized, a really new and modern medium in Pakistan. The website garnered a huge audience from the western side of the world. However, the website was shut down due to unknown reasons in 2003.

He regularly contributed articles in newspapers and offered comments as a current affairs analyst on TV and Radio. Readers and senior journalists always commented that he was well known than his two newspapers he was editing. At the age of 78 and despite suffering from cancer, he continued to contribute editorial and political commentaries.  He wrote his last editorial on Jan 23th after visiting the doctor in Karachi which underscored his dedication towards journalism.

Baluch was born in Karachi in 1940. He got his Master’s Degree in Economics from University of Karachi, and started his career in journalism in 1966. He worked for Dawn in different capacities for 28 years. He is credited with writing a 100-page Dawn supplement single-handedly.

He remained president of the SM College Students Union, Karachi, vice president for Karachi Press Club and president of the Balochistan Council for Newspaper Editors for two terms.

He served as Press Secretary to the Governor of Balochistan in 1972. He visited many countries of the world, including the United States, the Russian Federation, the People’s Republican of China, United Kingdom, Germany, France and dozens of other countries, where he covered international conferences and summits as a newsman.

In his early 30s, Siddiq Baluch was imprisoned along with former late governor Mir Guas Baksh Bizenjo, hardliner nationalist late Nawab Khair Baksh Marri, former Chief Minister Sardar Athaullah Mengal and other leaders of National Awami Party (NAP).

They were subjected to rigorous punishment in jail after the government of NAP was toppled in Balochistan by PPP-led government.  Siddiq Baluch mentioned that he was subjected to harsh punishment and treatment during his time imprisoned in jail. He remained imprisoned for three years.

He wrote two books “Balochistan: Its Politics & Economics” which was published in 2013 and “A Critical Commentary on the Political Economy of Balochistan,” published in 2002. He was writing “My Years in Journalism”, which will be soon up in at the bookstalls.  He was widely quoted by BBC, Voice of America, Al-Jazeera and other international and Pakistani media outlets.

He was considered the authority on Balochistan’s issues. His newspapers faced many hardships from different governments due to his impartial editorial policies. He was also conferred Tamgah-i-Imtiaz on March 23, 2015. He was Member Emeritus of APNS.

Besides, his inspiring journalistic career, Siddiq Baluch was well known for his good behavior and attitude towards his staff and colleagues.

Despite his newspapers dependent on government advertisements and meager resources, he ensured diversity at his office by the inclusion of different ethnic and minority groups Baloch, Pashtoon, Punjabi, Sindhi, Shia, Christian, Sunni. His secular and openness to accept every sect and ethnic group were always praised by the journalist community.

He always fed his staff at least once a day. His editorial policies were always impartial with the inclusion of all the voices. Siddiq Baluch left behind a great legacy of objective journalism to follow.

For more information, please visit DAWN, Pakistan’s oldest and most widely read English-language newspaper.

The post A Symbol of Resistance: Veteran Journalist Siddiq Baloch Laid to Rest appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Yep, I’m going to do it. I’m going to write about Star Wars. And no, I’m not just going to fan-boy gush about how amazing it was. If you have an insane love for all things Star Wars, you do you. More power to you, I totally support your fandom. But for the rest of us, a level-headed discussion of the newest film has been a little hard to come by. If you have anything less than high praise to give The Force Awakens, you’re labeled a hipster or a fun-hater. So let the hate fly, cause I’m putting on my hipster pants and speaking my mind about the what may eventually be the highest grossing movie of all time.

The one thing that stuck out to me the most while watching The Force Awakens was just how deeply ingrained it was in the original trilogy. And this worked as both a strength and a weakness, on a couple of different levels. On the one hand, I totally understand this move. They want to distance themselves from the prequels, and strongly associate themselves with the much better original trilogy. Leading up to this movie, there seemed to be a collective attitude of “Disney really needs to not screw up the Star Wars franchise” (which is really not true, George Lucas himself did that with Episode I and people got over it pretty quickly). The Force Awakens heavily referenced the ’70s movies, and made next to no mention of any of the events of the 2000s movies.

However, The Force Awakens went far far beyond mere reference. The entire plot seemed like an amalgamation of Episodes IV-VI. Let me go through a quick list of things I can remember off the top of my head that were the exact same: A droid with a special message needs to escape from the bad guys to find an old and inactive Jedi, The Resistance/Rebels, The First Order/Empire (is there any difference at all between these two groups?), a cantina scene, a hero with no parents emerging from a desert planet and learning to use the Force with little to no training to defeat the big bad, a giant planet destroying weapon that the good guys’ best pilot blows up through a small hole in its defenses, the big bad and the good guy have family relations with the bad guy winning at first, going to a distant planet to receive training from an old and inactive Jedi, etc.

Overall, these similarities really hurt the film. They completely box The Force Awakens in, and refuse it to become its own film. Luckily, this is something that will hopefully not plague the next films. I deeply hope that the next two movies in the new trilogy will be able to branch out and come into their own. However, the similarities hurt The Force Awakens on another level. They end up canceling out the original trilogy and much of the Star Wars universe in general. The Resistance and The First Order are both just re-named versions of the Rebels and the Empire. The Starkiller Base is just a much bigger version of the Death Star. These things make it feel like the events of the original trilogy were essentially worthless. Who cares that the Empire was defeated if a much more powerful version of them forms a few decades later? Who cares if you blew up the Death Star a few times if they could build a much better version of it in a few years?

Also, and this might be a bit whiny of me, but what business do Finn and Rey have using lightsabers and the Force, and fighting a trained dark Jedi in Kylo Ren, with absolutely no training? If it was so unbelievable the 9 year old Anakin would be able to be a Jedi, and even more unbelievable that an even older Luke could do it…It just feels pretty cheap to.

Side note: I wouldn’t advise seeing this movie in 3-D. It is absolutely gorgeous to look at, but nothing particularly pops out and the 3-D makes it a little more to truly appreciate the visuals.

Click here to see if Star Wars: The Force Awakens is in theaters near you (hint: it probably is). Check out the trailer for the film below:

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