Sarah Nasir: The Superwoman Who Was Lost Too Soon

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Our superwoman Sarah Nasir, an esteemed faculty member of the IBA economics department, along with her family and 97 others became victim to the crash of flight PK8303 on 22nd May 2020.

Dedication of Miss Sarah Nasir

Both Sarah Nasir and her husband Zain Polani were IBA alumni. Zain graduated in 2005 and was the head of the credit cards and personal loans division at the Standard Chartered Bank. Sarah completed her Masters in 2017 after which she joined as a faculty member for the Department of Economics.

Moreover, she was also known as the Superwoman in the Economics department. During her short term as a professor, she taught several courses, which included the Introduction of Economics, Principle of Macroeconomics, and Analysis of Pakistan Industries. While teaching two courses during the semester, working on her thesis alongside, applying for a Ph.D. program simultaneously, and looking after her 3 boys, it was astonishing to see someone handle all that at once and maintain a balance in between.

“Definitely super hard-working, a superwoman if you will, handling all these things at the same time”

Once she fractured her foot but still managed to come to IBA in a wheelchair. They were no excuses for her. She used to manage to come to the City Campus even during the summer breaks to complete her work. She would get the job done, no matter how difficult her situation was. Seldom do you see such dedication in play. She was a committed person indeed.

Sarah Nasir relationship with her students

What will be missed the most by her students will be her savage ways of dealing with them. Her assistant Armaan Rajani shared with us an incident during his class of Analysis of Pakistan Industries, where the students were presenting their term projects. This one group plagiarised their entire presentation from the previous batch. Once she realised it, during their presentation she started to complete their sentences. To add to that, she started informing everyone what will happen in the next slide. Eventually, the roasting began for blatantly copying the entire presentation. She took an active interest in the learning of her students. Her methods of teaching never allowed students to have a dull day in class.

Tragedy of Life

However, fate had planned something else for this superwoman. It’s strange how we as individuals plan our whole life starting with our goals, the dreams we have, the education we want to pursue, the careers we want to have. We work every day just to see those goals come true, to live the life of our dreams. But we forget the uncertainty element of death. How it puts an end to all that you lived and endured to achieve but couldn’t make it to the finish line. But what we don’t realise is that it was never about the finish line. It was about the journey leading up to it, the track on which we kept walking and running and lived our life by.

The tragedy of PK 8303 became the crash of dreams for all its passengers. It made this Eid, a heart-wrecking experience for their family members. Sarah Nasir with her 3 boys and her husband passed away and left a huge hole in the lives of their family- as well in the hearts of her students.

Conclusion

On 22^nd May 2020, IBA lost the soul of Faculty Economics. The woman who always smiled her way through life. Her presence never went unnoticed. She was a loving mother, wife, daughter, and an amazing teacher and colleague to work with. For years to come, people will remember her for who she was: a superwoman.

Our superwoman was lost too soon but will be remembered.