Islamabad: Arfa Karim, who became the world's youngest Microsoft certified professional in 2004 when she was barely nine and died Jan 14, was a fine example that people from "Pakistan can be famous for all the right reasons, rather than all the wrong ones", said a daily.
Arfa Karim's death "triggered an outpouring of sorrow which is genuine, heartfelt and nationwide", said the News Editorial in an editorial on Monday. She was 16.
The child prodigy had been in a coma since December 28 last year and "...in the end she lost the battle and slipped away". She died at the Combined Military Hospital, Lahore.
The editorial said: "The loss of any young life is tragic, but in losing Arfa the nation has lost one of its stars."
"She was a child prodigy who at the age of nine became the world's youngest Microsoft certified professional in 2004...Aged ten she made her first flight in a light aircraft, and in 2006 she was invited to be the keynote speaker at the Microsoft Tech-Ed Conference."
Noting with a tinge of regret that "we will...never know what she might have gone on to achieve", the editorial said that despite her youth, "she is going to leave a legacy that is going to echo down the years".
"Her life was a fine example of what can be achieved, and that people from Pakistan can be famous for all the right reasons, rather than all the wrong ones.
"That people from Pakistan can stand tall in the world, earn the respect of others by their skill and expertise, and have the potential to be global leaders in their chosen profession," it added.
The editorial said that Pakistan lost Arfa Karim as she stood on the cusp of womanhood, and the threshold of a career that would never have been anything less than glittering.
"Today we mourn her, and tomorrow we must remember her for what she was - an example of the very best of Pakistan."
IANS
First Published: Monday, January 16, 2012, 11:49