Ali was an award-winning pioneer of animated political caricatures and Pakistan’s first courtroom artist.
Printed On 9 Nov 2026
Shujaat Ali, cartoonist and founding member of Al Jazeera’s on-line groups, has died on the age of 54.
A pioneer of digital cartoons, Ali was credited with creating the primary animated caricatures on-line. He additionally labored at numerous media retailers in his native Pakistan and overseas, receiving a number of awards for his work.
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He died final week after struggling a coronary heart assault as he returned dwelling from work. He was buried in Qasimabad in Rawalpindi, the place his dad and mom are additionally buried.
Ali was Pakistan’s first courtroom artist, documenting the course of numerous well-known circumstances utilizing his pencil and abilities.
He had just lately been working with the Pakistan Air Drive, his son-in-law, Waqar Saeed, instructed the Daybreak newspaper.
Earlier than returning to his homeland, he had labored at Al Jazeera for a few years. He contributed as a part of the founding workforce of Al Jazeera Arabic’s on-line providers, growing cartooning to utilise the potential of the digital platform.
Ahmed El Amraoui, an editor at Aljazeera.com, stated, “I had the privilege of working with Shujaat through the early days of Aljazeera.com. He was a really proficient artist, however what made him stand out was how far forward of his time he was.”
Awad Joumaa, supervisor of Digital Packages at Al Jazeera English, described Ali’s cartoons as “in contrast to something we had been used to seeing in a information organisation… He drew everybody from Arafat to George Bush to Osama bin Laden.
“I keep in mind the pleasure in his voice when he instructed me that presidents, prime ministers and insurgent fighters passing via the newsroom would all the time cease to have a look at the wall the place his cartoons hung,” Joumaa stated.
“We neglect there’s a complete custom in journalism the place a cartoon might make governments and world leaders shake. Naji al-Ali, the Palestinian cartoonist, was killed for his cartoons. That’s how highly effective they had been. And Shujaat was an unimaginable voice in that style.”
