Abdullah Malik 

Abdullah Malik(1920-2003) was a well known Journalist and historian. After the partition of India, in 1947, he became a reporter of Pakistan’s daily Imroz and briefly served as London correspondent for Imroz and the Pakistan Times. 

Abdullah’s embodied qualities that are increasing rare in today’s Pakistan – tolerance, scholarship, secularism, faith in democracy and social justice, and fearless outspokenness on behalf of all these values. 

Abdullah, in his early days, after a brief association with the anti-imperialist and religious Tehreek-e-Ahrar (Movement for Liberation) joined the Communist party of India (CPI) and remained adherent of Communist ideals until his death. In 1940s, he worked on the CPI newspaper Qaumi Jang helping to advance the cause of independence. 

Abdullah being member of the Communist Party of India was no believer in the Muslim League ideology and the creation of Pakistan on the two-nation theory. He was jailed, in 1971, by the military government of General Yahya Khan for opposing military action in East Pakistan, now Bangladesh. 

Abdullah kept a meticulous diary, and produced scholarly works on history and politics. The collapse of the Soviet Union deeply affected him, and led him to delve deeply into Pakistan’s history. He wrote a brilliant book on the history of coups resulting from Bonapartist and praetorian tendencies of Pakistani generals. 

Abdullah Malik was born in Lahore in British India and brought up in a staunch Salafi Ahl-e-Hadith family. He performed Hajj, before his death, on the insistence of his wife and duly produced a book about his spiritual experience.