Shujaat Ali – RIP
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Shujaat Ali, Pakistani political cartoonist, caricaturist, animator, and founding member of Al Jazeera’s online services has passed at the age of 54 from heart attack.
1971-2026
Ali’s professional career began in 1992 working for The News Daily in Islamabad. According to Al Jazeera he earned several awards during that period including “best political cartoonist award from the All Pakistan Newspaper Society (APNS) for 1992, 1994, 1995 and 1996.”
He is also noted as Pakistan’s first court artist though TDC could not determine the dates for his work with the courts.
He joined Aljazeera.net in 2002 and and began creating animated cartoons in 2004.
Al Jazeera has published a notice of his passing. His editor Ahmed El Amraoui remarks:
“I had the privilege of working with Shujaat during the early days of Aljazeera.com. He was a very talented artist, but what made him stand out was how far ahead of his time he was.”
Awad Joumaa, manager of Digital Programs at Al Jazeera English:
“I remember the pride in his voice when he told me that presidents, prime ministers and rebel fighters passing through the newsroom would always stop to look at the wall where his cartoons hung,” Joumaa said.
“We forget there is a whole tradition in journalism where a cartoon could make governments and world leaders shake. Naji al-Ali, the Palestinian cartoonist, was killed for his cartoons. That is how powerful they were. And Shujaat was an incredible voice in that genre.
Cartoons above from Ali’s Facebook page.
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