By Zubeida Mustafa and Maheen A. Rashdi
THE year was 1973 and it was the month of February — a time of crisis in national politics. President Bhutto had summarily dismissed the NAP governors of Balochistan and the NWFP. This paper reported the incident in banner headlines. Lost in those tumultuous events of the time was a change of another kind which took place the same day. Ahmad Ali Khan took over as acting editor of Dawn. Continue reading The sun of Dawn
By Zubeida Mustafa
Has Pakistan been reduced to such a hopeless state that even the most creative and prolific of intellectuals have run out of ideas on how the country can be redeemed? Hopefully not. But a meeting with Professor Khalid Bin Sayeed provided no reassuring answers. It left me wondering how Pakistan will be saved from certain disaster and who will play the role of the savior. Continue reading A scholar and a gentleman
By Zubelda Mustafa
In one of his periodic meetings with newspaper editors , President Ayub Khan tried to draw a reticent Zahoor Husain Choudhury, a senior and eminent journalist and editor of Sangbad, into the discussion. “Choudhury Sahib are you not concerned about freedom of expression in Pakistan?” the Field Marshal enquired.
“Oh yes sir, I am. But I am more worried about freedom after expression,” the witty editor replied. The repartee describes in a nutshell the adversarial state of the Press-government relationship that has been the traditional pattern in this country. Continue reading An adversarial relationship
By Zubeida Mustafa
IS the International Women’s Day on March 8 to be dismissed as one of those occasions for the annual round of rituals and rhetorics which come to nought? The cynics are quick to point out that fiery speeches notwithstnding, the plight of women continues to be as dismal as ever.
True, the struggle for equality of status and the emancipation of women in Pakistan still has a long way to go. Women have not be accorded the basic rights or given the social recognition that are their due as human beings. They have not been integrated in the mainstream of national development. Hence Continue reading Women’s rights: Greater awareness than before
By Zubeida Mustafa
IT IS now eighteen months that computerised Urdu nastaliq calligraphy has been in use in the country but it has yet to produce the impact on Urdu printing it could have been expected to. Only one machine is currently being used in Pakistan to bring out an Urdu daily from Lahore.
Why this delay in response? Not that the inventor, Mr Ahmed Mirza Jamil, has not Continue reading Slow acceptance of a major breakthrough: Computerised calligraphy