Mazhar Ali Khan (1917 – 1993) was a Pakistani

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

intellectual and a veteran

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

. He was the editor of the ''

Pakistan Times ''Pakistan Times'' (1947–1996) was a Pakistani newspaper, originally established by the leftist Progressive Papers Limited based in Lahore, Pakistan. Historical background It was owned and operated by Mian Iftikharuddin, a Punjabi politic ...

'' in the 1950s, when it was considered a ' progressive' newspaper.

Early life

According to ''Dawn'' newspaper, "Mazhar Ali Khan (1917-1993) was well known in his college days as a star debater, a lover of sports (tennis and swimming) and as a leader of a nationalist-minded and non-communal students' union." He served briefly as an officer in the British Indian Army. Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan, then unionist Chief Minister of Punjab in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

, had made that a condition for Mazhar Ali Khan before he could marry his beautiful daughter, Tahira. So he fulfilled that condition to be able to marry Tahira. Despite his feudal background, young Mazhar Ali Khan started mobilizing peasants that were working on his extended family's lands due to the prevailing influence and trend towards socialist thinking in the late 1940s.

Career

He was first asked to join the editorial team of the ''Pakistan Times'' in

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city ...

by owner

Mian Iftikharuddin Mian Iftikharuddin (Punjabi, ur, میاں افتخارالدیں; 8 April 1907 – 6 June 1962) was a Pakistani politician, activist of the Indian National Congress, who later joined the All-India Muslim League and worked for the cause of Pakis ...

after the 1947 independence of Pakistan. In 1951, when the then newspaper editor Faiz Ahmed Faiz was arrested due to his suspected involvement in the Rawalpindi conspiracy case, Mazhar Ali Khan replaced him.Profile of Tahira Mazhar Ali Khan (1925 – 2015), on The Friday Times newspaper
published 27 March 2015, Retrieved 30 July 2019
published 29 March 2015, Retrieved 30 July 2019 Mian Iftikharuddin had earlier launched ''The

'' to rally and win Punjab's support for the

Pakistan Movement The Pakistan Movement ( ur, , translit=Teḥrīk-e-Pākistān) was a political movement in the first half of the 20th century that aimed for the creation of Pakistan from the Muslim-majority areas of British India. It was connected to the per ...

and its cause. He remained its editor until 19 April 1959, when Ayub Khan's military regime seized the newspaper and its sister publications, the Urdu-language newspaper '' Daily Imroze'' and the magazine ''Lail-o-Nahar''. Iftikharuddin, Faiz Ahmed Faiz and later Mazhar Ali Khan developed the 'progressive' editorial viewpoint of their publications from 1947 to 1959. Neither Faiz nor Mazhar joined a major political party in Pakistan so as not to compromise their editorial independence. They both tried to give special emphasis to the rights of peasants and workers. Mazhar Ali Khan's professional career may be divided into three parts – for the first 12 years, he wrote for ''The Pakistan Times'' which flourished under his editorial control and won the respect of the people. Mazhar Ali Khan never joined a political party to be able to preserve his editorial independence. The owner of the newspaper, Mian Iftikharuddin, also deserves some credit here because he chose not to interfere in the editor's domain. Mazhar Ali Khan's emphasis was on truthfulness and objectivity Then he had a relatively inactive period of 16 years, where he wrote an occasional column for different publications in Pakistan. In the final period of his life, he brought out and wrote for his weekly magazine ''Viewpoint'' from 1975 to 1993, the year of his death. In 1981, while he was jailed at Kot Lakhpat Jail, he continued writing his editorial for ''Viewpoint''.

Personal life

Mazhar Ali Khan married his cousin Tahira. According to ''

The Friday Times ''The Friday Times'' (TFT) is a Pakistani English-language independent newsweekly, based in Lahore, Pakistan. History and profile ''The Friday Times'' was first published in May 1989. TFT's founder-editor Najam Sethi and publisher Jugnu Mohsin, ...

'' newspaper, "She (Tahira) eloped with her charismatic, student leader cousin Mazhar when she was 17. Their marriage went on to become a fabled partnership." Tahira was the daughter of Punjabi feudal landlord and

Unionist Party (Punjab) The National Unionist Party was a political party based in the Punjab Province during the period of British rule in India. The Unionist Party mainly represented the interests of the landed gentry and landlords of Punjab, which included Muslims ...

politician Sikander Hayat Khan who had also served as provincial prime minister of Punjab in

from 1937 to 1942. After their marriage, Tahira stayed active socially and politically and was publicly known as Tahira Mazhar Ali. In the 1960s and 1970s, their son

Tariq Ali Tariq Ali (; born 21 October 1943) is a Pakistani-British political activist, writer, journalist, historian, filmmaker, and public intellectual. He is a member of the editorial committee of the ''New Left Review'' and ''Sin Permiso'', and con ...

(born in 1943) also became well- known as a British-Pakistani writer and a political activist with a socialist and communist viewpoint.

Early life

Career

Personal life

See also

References

Further reading