Lyari has always produced prominent names in various fields despite being underprivileged and neglected. Today we are here to talk about Abdul Latif Baloch, former Dawn Newspaper reporter, author, educationist and social worker.
Baloch was born in 1945 in Lyari. His father, Gul Mohammad Baloch was a poor and uneducated person but a hard worker. He was uneducated but fully aware of the significance of education. He knew that it is only education through which his children could live a happy and prosperous life which he always dreamt about. Mohammad was a good football player too. He was leading the team of his area as captain and played various matches.
Abdul Latif Baloch received his early education from Abdullah Haroon Secondary School and later graduated in 1968 from Karachi University. Since childhood, he was interested in reading books and gaining as much knowledge as he could from them. While asked about his key to success, he pointed to the hundreds of books out there in his office and said, “Reading books, these are the gateway to learning and knowledge.”
Baloch likes reading English literature and loves reading Williams Shakespeare and William Wordsworth. He says, “I always used to be surrounded by book. I didn’t have another wish than getting knowledge of each and everything as much as I could. I used to read, write and dream; a dream to change the lives of people around me.”
During his student life, he always had the interest in spreading awareness about education among the people of Lyari. This interest of him laid the foundation of Lyari Students’ Welfare Association with the ambition to let parents and children of Lyari know the importance of education for a sustainable and bright future. He became successful in doing many seminars and awareness sessions in Lyari and made enrolling of the kids and youngsters possible throughout Lyari.
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Baloch started his career as a news reporter at Pakistan’s renowned newspaper ‘Dawn’ and worked there for 33 years. While his service at Dawn, he was selected two times as president of Herald Workers Union.
Following his passion for educating people around, he formed an educational society called Gul-i-Noor Educational Society of which there are two secondary level schools running in Baghdadi and Kalari of Lyari. He founded Rotary Club Karachi’s Lyari chapter in 2006 and attended various international Rotary conferences too.
He has authored two books, one on his life journey called “Meeri Yaadien” and the second 
one “Lyari ka Muqadma’, which is a semi-autobiographical book in which he had described Lyari’s contribution in the political and social scene and gave an interesting account regarding its history that included the etymology of its name.
Lyari is full of those people who have brought change through their efforts and determination. Mr. Abdul Latif’s extraordinary and multifaceted journey teaches us a lot about how to do efforts effectively not only for us but also for others around us. Baloch proves to us that helping others helps us find meaning in in life.
