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DAWN PAKISTAN BIOGRAPHY
--: Biography of DAWN PAKISTAN :--

                                        

 

 

           Front page of Dawn newspaper, Pakistan

Dawn is Pakistan's oldest and most widely-read English-language newspaper. One of the country's two largest English-language dailies, it is the flagship of the Dawn Group of Newspapers, published by Pakistan Herald Publications, which also owns the Herald, a magazine, the evening paper The Star and Spider, an information technology magazine. Pakistan's newspaper of record, it is considered to be something of a national institution. 


It was founded in 1941 by Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah in Delhi, India. The newspaper has offices in Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad, as well as representatives abroad. As of 2004, it has a weekday circulation of over 138,000. The CEO of Dawn group is Hameed Haroon, and the current editor of Dawn is Abbas Nasir. 


Founded by Mohammad Ali Jinnah on 26 October 1941 as a mouthpiece for the Muslim League, Dawn was originally a weekly publication, published in New Delhi, then the capital of India. Jinnah summed up the paper's purpose when he stated: 


"The Dawn will mirror faithfully the views of Hindustan's Muslims and the All Hindustan Muslim League in all its activities: economic, educational and social and more particularly political, throughout the country fearlessly and independently and while its policy will be, no doubt, mainly to advocate and champion the cause of the Muslims and the policy and programme of the All Hindustan Muslim League, it will not neglect the cause and welfare of the peoples of this sub-continent generally". 


Dawn became a daily newspaper in October 1942 under the leadership of its first editor, Pothan Joseph. In 1944 Altaf Hussain took over as the editor and brought nationwide awareness of its daily circulation. After the creation of Pakistan, Hussain moved the newspaper to the capital, Karachi. Under the instruction of the owner, Mr.Jinnah, it became the official organ of the Pakistan Muslim League in Delhi, and the sole voice of the Muslims in English language, reflecting and espousing the cause of the Muslims of India. Hussain, as the journal's editor, galvanised the Muslims of India by his editorials, which earned him wrath of the entire Hindu leadership of the Congress Party as well as Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy and Governor General of the British Raj 


In 1947, senior Dawn staff led by Altaf Hussain set off for Karachi to start a local edition from 15 August 1947. Under Yusuf Haroon a close confidant of Mr. Mohammad Ali Jinnah was given the task to facilitate the publication. The offices of the newspaper were housed in the small premises on the commercially busy and a crowded narrow street then known as South Napier Road, in premises belonging to Haroon. He was at that time planning to bring out a newspaper called "The Herald" but agreed to publish DAWN at his facilities, at the bidding of Mr. Jinnah. The street where Dawn was first published is now known as Altaf Hussain Road. DAWN became a most outspoken publication under the editorship of Hussain, who fiercely opposed the tyranny and corrupt politicians and military dictators after the independence of Pakistan. In 1965, Hussain resigned as editor when he accepted the invitation of President General Ayub Khan to join his government as a cabinet minister 


In addition, Dawn regularly carries syndicated articles from western newspapers like The Independent, The Guardian, the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post. 
In Pakistan Dawn has in-paper magazines such as Sci-tech World, Young World, "Images", "Books & Authors" etc. 


On Sundays, the weekend advertiser carries three sections namely "Ad Buzz", "Career" & "Real Estate". 


Regular op-ed contributors include Ardeshir Cowasjee, Irfan Hussain, Nadeem F. Paracha, Muhammad Hanif, Asma Jahangir, Jawed Naqvi, I.A. Rehman, Ayesha Siddiqa, Anwar Syed, Cyril Almeida, Kamran Shafi, Huma Yusuf, Kunwar Idris, Kuldip Nayar, Mahir Ali, Dr Tariq Rahman, Amb Tariq Fatemi, Shahid Javed Burki, Dr Riffat Hassan, Zubeida Mustafa, A.G. Noorani, Ahmad Faruqui, Zafar Masud, Asghar Ali Engineer, Rafia Zakaria, Murtaza Razvi and Shada Islam. 


Other op-ed contributors include Pervez Hoodbhoy, Prof Mohammad Waseem, Nasser Yousaf, Faizullah Jan, Beena Sarwar, Bina Shah, Rakesh Mani, Asha'ar Rehman, S.M. Naseem, Dr Ishrat Hussain, Nilofar Farrukh, Shahid M. Amin, Anees Jillani, Brig Javed Hussain and Rina Saeed Khan 


On Friday, 25 May 2007, DAWN Group of Newspapers launched the test transmission of Dawn News. It is the first 24-hour English news channel in Pakistan. The launching ceremony of the channel was inaugurated by then President Pervez Musharraf. The channel started full transmission in late July. 


Dawn is today a full-fledged online newspaper which is updated regularly, carrying news from across the world. 
 

 

 
Total Visit of DAWN PAKISTAN : 3330