- Dawn (newspaper)
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Dawn 
The 24 July 2008 front page of
Dawn (newspaper)Type Daily newspaper Format Broadsheet Owner Dawn Group of Newspapers Publisher Khawaja Kaleem Ahmed Editor Zaffar Abbas Founded 1941, Delhi, British India Headquarters Saddar, Karachi, Pakistan Official website dawn.com 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.
It was founded in 1941 by Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah in Delhi, British India. The newspaper has offices in Karachi (Sindh), Lahore (Punjab), and the capital Islamabad, as well as representatives abroad.[1] As of 2004[update], it has a weekday circulation of over 138,000. The CEO of Dawn group is Hameed Haroon, and the current editor of Dawn is Zaffar Abbas.
Contents
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 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".[2]
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 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 Congress Party as well as Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy and Governor General of the British Raj.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed]
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, Nadeem F. Paracha, Muhammad Hanif, Asma Jahangir, Jawed Naqvi, I.A. Rehman, Ayesha Siddiqa, Humair Ishtiaq, 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, Yaqoob Khan Bangash, Nilofar Farrukh, Shahid M. Amin, Anees Jillani, Brig Javed Hussain and Rina Saeed Khan
24-hour news channel
After two months of test transmissions, the publishing company behind the newspaper launched Pakistan's first 24-hour English news channel, Dawn News, in July 2007. However, due to financial difficulties, the broadcast language was switched from English to Urdu in May 2010.
See also
Notes
- ^ "Our International Business Representatives". Dawn Media Group. http://www.dawn.com/fixed/group/internat.htm.
- ^ "Jinnah and the Muslim press". JANG Newspaper Group. http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/spedition/14aug/14aug2004/default.htm#2.
External links
Dawn Group of Newspapers Categories:- English-language newspapers published in Pakistan
- Karachi media
- 1941 establishments in India
- Publications established in 1941
- Dawn (newspaper)
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