Karachi: Renowned columnist Ardeshir Cowasjee passed away on Saturday after protracted illness at the age of 86 in Karachi.

Ardeshir Cowasjee was born in 1926 at Karachi and hailed from the well-known Cowasjee Parsi (Zoroastrian) family. His father Rustom Fakirjee Cowasjee was a businessman in merchant shipping. Ardeshir attended the Bai Virbaiji Soparivala Parsi High School (BVS) and graduated from DJ Science College, Karachi. Later, he joined his father’s business, the Cowasjee Group, and married Nancy Dinshaw in 1953. He has two children, Ava (daughter) and Rustom (son).

He was appointed by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as Managing Director of Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) in 1973

Cowasjee started writing letters to the editor of a leading English mewspaper, which led him to become a permanent columnist.

His hard-hitting and well-researched columns exposed corruption, nepotism and incompetence in different local, provincial and national governments for the last twenty years.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has expressed deep grief over demise of Cowasjee and praised the journalistic contribution of departed soul.