KARACHI – Begum Amna Majid Malik, an educationist, philanthropist, and the founder of the PECHS schools and college, passed away at the age of 91 on Tuesday after a brief illness. She was under treatment at a local hospital.
She was buried at the army graveyard, CSD, on Monday, after Zohr prayers.
She is survived by a son, Farid Malik, and four grand-children.
She had three children, two daughters and a son. Both the daughters died earlier. Her daughter Nagin Malik was also an educationist and principal of the PECHS School.
Her burial was attended by large number of educationists, philanthropists, intellectuals, and politicians. Among those who attended were Hakim Ali Zardari, Kamal Azfar, Anwar Maqsood, Fatima Suraiya Bajia, Ahmed Maqsood Hamidi, and others.
Sindh Governor Ishrat-ul-Ebad sent a condolence message to the bereaved family and expressed his sympathy over her demise.
Her soyem will be held on Wednesday at her residence, 21-A, Central Avenue, 10th Central Street, DHA, Phase-II, between Asr and Maghrib prayers.
Begum Majid Malik, referred to affectionately as Baji by friends, was born in 1913 in Lahore. She did her matriculation at the age of 13 from India and was the first Muslim girl in the Indian-Sub-continent to top the matriculation examination. She also topped the Intermediate exam and completed her graduation by securing a first- class-first position from the Lahore College for Women.
In 1930, she met Col Majid Malik whom she married in 1932. A pioneer in the field of English journalism, she was the only Indian lady to be an accredited correspondent for Reuters in India.
Her husband, incidentally, also hailed from the same academic background.
She did her Bachelors in Teaching (BT) from the Aligarh Muslim University in 1935 and a Masters in Philosophy from Bombay University.
Baji was an icon for the women of India who were greatly influenced by her educational antecedents.
During World War II, she became the head of the Allied Propaganda Department for the South Asia and Burma theatre of operations and became the first Indian to rise to the rank of full Colonel in the Royal Indian Army.
Later, in 1955, she established the PECHS Girls School and College in Karachi. Baji worked day and night to make her long-awaited dream come true by establishing the PECHS foundation.
She became the sole agent in Pakistan for virtually for all the major western publishers, such as Macmillan, Routledge & Keegan Paul, the Bodley Head and Chatto & Windus to earn for this mega-project PECHS.
Founded in 1961 PECHS School and then college was the first-ever college to introduce the discipline of commercial practices for the girls.
To acknowledge her contribution to education, the Government of Pakistan named the college after her, Begum Amna Majid Malik PECHS Government College for Women.
The Vice-Chancellor, Karachi University, Dr Pirzada Qasim, in his condolence message, expressed sympathy over the passing away of a great educationist.
Source: The News
Date:10/5/2004
