Hameed Haroon — a noted Pakistani journalist
HAMEED Haroon was born in Karachi as a member of the large and influential Haroon family, which owned the English-language daily Dawn. The newspaper was founded by Pakistan’s founder Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah in New Delhi in l942.
Ever since its inception it has remained a quality daily newspaper and at present it is Pakistan’s premier English-language daily. The reason of its success, withstanding the test of time, can be attributed to its founder’s insistence to keep the paper’s standards at par with the then prevailing English dailies in India like the Times of India, the Indian Express and the Bombay Chronicle. It is now the flagship of the Dawn Group published by the Herald Publications including Herald magazine. It was a weekly paper at first but became a daily mouthpiece of the Indian Muslim League party. It galvanized the Muslims to support the creation of a separate state for Muslims, leading to the partition of India and creation of a new country — Pakistan — which is now the second largest Muslim nation after Indonesia.
Jinnah made it quite clear to the majority Indians and the British rulers of the Subcontinent that Dawn will “mirror faithfully the views of Hindustan’s Muslims and the Muslim League in all its activities, economic, educational and social and more particularly political, throughout the country fearlessly and independently while its policy will be no doubt mainly to advocate and champion the cause of the Muslims and the policy and program of the league. It will not neglect the cause and welfare of the people of the peoples of the Subcontinent generally.”
The newspaper has maintained that feature and stature since then. And so far no English-language daily has been able to challenge its predominant position. When the situation in India in the early 1940s looked set for independence from Britain, Jinnah called for a separate homeland for the Muslims. His aim to create a separate state at any price put him at odds with Indian stalwarts like Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who fought hard to dissuade him. But Jinnah did not budge from his stated and cherished position of a separate homeland for the Muslims of the Subcontinent. Jinnah eventually got what he wanted and died in Pakistan soon after creating it and leading it for a short while.
Dawn moved its head office to Karachi in l947.
Yusuf Haroon took over the mantle from Altaf Husain, the editor of the paper, who was appointed by Jinnah himself and played a critically important part in the Pakistan movement.
Altaf Husain was a firebrand journalist and exposed the deeply entrenched corruption in Pakistan and machinations of the military dictators after the creation of the new state. He later resigned to become a minister.
Haroon, after taking the reins, successfully maintained the quality of the paper and sustained its circulation and advertising revenues long after the death of the legendary founder Jinnah. We met first in Manila during the first few days of the presidency of Cory Aquino whose husband had been assassinated at the behest of former President Ferdinand Marcos who feared for his own regime when Aquino, a popular leader, returned from exile to challenge Marcos. The enraged public propelled Cory into the presidency. Hameed and myself were in Manila as members of the then well known In-DepthNews news service board and persuaded the other members to join us in calling for an interview with Cory. That is how we met and became friends. Hameed was a well-spoken and of course, a well educated man. He graduated from Boston University with a master’s degree in addition to a bachelor’s degree in sciences from the London School of Economics.
Both of us stayed at the famous Manila Hotel that had been owned by Imelda Marcos — the immensely wealthy first lady of the immensely poor country. So we had more than a chance to meet over meals and in the main reception of the hotel that was once the headquarters of the American commander Gen. Douglas MacArthur who beat the Japanese and established American hegemony not only in the Philippines but also throughout Asia including Japan itself. Hameed started his newspaper career at Dawn rising through the ranks. From being reporter and later a feature writer, he became chief executive officer and leader of the all Pakistan newspapers’ society.
According to his published biography, he has played a major role in the country’s culture, music and arts as well as the conservation of archeological heritage. He is associated with the publishing of several books and was awarded the sitara-e-imtiaz, the country’s highest civilian award, in 2004 in recognition of his contribution to the promotion of arts and culture. Like Mumbai in India, Karachi is the cultural and economic hub of Pakistan. Born and brought up in Karachi, Hameed became one of the city’s most prominent leaders. With Dawn he was certainly the best known journalist not only in the English language press but also as a whole shining all the way to stardom soon after his graduation from American and British universities. He was a fluent speaker and could certainly impress his audiences with his knowledge, journalistic experience and command of English.
In a famous letter of protest against government policy during the Musharaf era Hameed wrote: “It has always been difficult for governments to coexist with a free and independent press in Pakistan. Of late, however, the government headed by Gen. Pervez Musharaf has become increasingly intolerant toward criticism in the press and toward the publishing of news that reflects poorly on the performance of his government on security matters.
:One of the intended casualties of this welling hostility between government and the press is the Dawn group of newspapers, the country’s largest independent English-language newspaper and magazine publishing house. Since 2006, the Dawn Group is facing massive advertising cuts equivalent to two thirds of total government advertising. This has occurred primarily as a consequence of a decision taken by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz government, but in reality ordered by Gen. Musharaf and engineered by several of his advisers that constitute the government’s inner Cabinet.
Hameed goes on to say: “This period first witnessed the government’s exerting of harsh pressures on our daily evening newspaper — the Star —by attempting to intimidate and harass journalists with false cases and concocted charges and by a failed attempt to implicate the writer of this letter — Hameed — as CEO of the Group, in a totally fabricated incident of terrorism and illegal weapons possession.”
The attempt, he said, culminated with a complete ban on advertising on Dawn group of newspapers and magazines by the Government of Sindh. But in response to a petition by Dawn’s lawyers the Sindh High Court ruled in Dawn’s favor. The Sindh government sensing an impending debacle withdrew the advertising ban in advance of the court’s final verdict.”
n Farouk Luqman is an eminent journalist based in Jeddah.
