Dawn is Pakistan
's oldest and
most widely-read English-language
newspaper. It is known to be a liberal leaning newspaper
that has often supported controversial leftist social agenda. 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 IT 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. , 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.
Early history
Founded by
Mohammad Ali Jinnah on 26 October
1941 as a mouthpiece for the Muslim League, Dawn was originally a weekly
publication, published in Delhi
, then the
capital of British India.
Jinnah summed up the paper's purpose when he stated:
"The Dawn will mirror faithfully the views of India's
Muslims and the All India 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 India 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 Husain took
over as the editor and brought nation wide fame to its daily
circulation. After the creation of Pakistan,
Altaf Husain moved the newspaper to Karachi,
the capital of the newly formed nation state,under the instruction
of Mr.Jinnah, the owner of DAWN in Delhi which was then the
official organ of the Pakistan Muslim League.Dawn reflected and
espoused the cause of the Muslims of India.It was the sole voice of
the Muslims in English language.Altaf Husain, its' editor
galvanized the Muslims of India by his powerful inspiring and
passionate 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 early
August 1947 some senior DAWN staff led by Mr.Altaf Husain arrived
in Karachi to start the publication of DAWN from August 15, 1947.
The day after Pakistan gained its independence. Mr.
Yusuf Haroon a close confidant of Mr. Mohammad
Ali Jinnah was given the task to facilitate the publication of
DAWN. The offices of the newspaper was housed in the small premises
on the commercially busy and a crowded narrow street then known as
South Napier Road. These premises belonged to Mr. Haroon. He was at
that time planning to bring out a newspaper called "The Herald".
Instead at the bidding of Mr.Jinnah he agreed to publish DAWN at
his facilities. DAWN grew strength to strength as a most out spoken
publication under the editorship of Altaf Husain. He became a
legend both at home and abroad for his fearless opposition to the
tyranny and corrupt practices of politicians and military dictators
after the independence of Pakistan.. He was forced by President
General Ayub Khan to leave his newspaper job to become a cabinet
minister in his government. So DAWN said goodbye to Mr. Altaf
Husain in 1965. The street where Dawn was first published is now
known as Altaf Husain Road. Since then DAWN has prospered and has
moved to new and larger premises. DAWN still shines as an icon
amongst many other newspapers that are being published today in
Pakistan.
Features
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".
Staff
Regular op-ed contributors include
Ardeshir Cowasjee,
Irfan Husain, 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, Asha'ar Rehman, S.M. Naseem, Dr
Ishrat Husain, Nilofar Farrukh, Shahid M.
Amin, Anees Jillani, Brig Javed Hussain, Rina Saeed Khan
24-hours News Channel
On Friday,
May 25,
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 President
Pervez Musharraf. The channel
started full transmission in late July.
See also
Notes
External links
Wikis
Quiz
Facts
Map
Search
