''Dawn'' is a Pakistani English-language newspaper that was launched 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 ...

in 1941. It is the largest English newspaper in

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

, and also serves as the country's newspaper of record. ''Dawn'' is the flagship publication of the Dawn Media Group, which also owns local radio station ''

CityFM89 CityFM89 is a Pakistani radio station, headquartered in Karachi and broadcast from Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Faisalabad. It was established in July 2004 and is a subsidiary company of the Dawn Media Group. It had an objective to set a trend ...

'' as well as the marketing and media magazine ''Aurora''. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan's founding father, launched the newspaper in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...

on 26 October 1941, with the goal of establishing it as a mouthpiece for the

All-India Muslim League The All-India Muslim League (AIML) was a political party established in Dhaka in 1906 when a group of prominent Muslim politicians met the Viceroy of British India, Lord Minto, with the goal of securing Muslim interests on the Indian subcont ...

. The first issue was printed at Latifi Press on 12 October 1942. Based in

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...

, it also maintains offices 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 ...

and the capital city of

Islamabad Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital ...

, in addition to having correspondents abroad. , it has a weekday circulation of over 109,000. The newspaper's current chief editor is Zaffar Abbas.

History

''Dawn'' began as a weekly publication, based in

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Ho ...

. Under the instruction of Jinnah, it became the official organ of the All India Muslim League in Delhi, and the sole voice of the Muslims League in the English language, reflecting and espousing the cause of Pakistan's creation. Jinnah summed up the paper's purpose in these words:

"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 1944 under the leadership of its editor, Pothan Joseph, who later resigned in 1944 to take up the position of the government's principal information officer in part because of differences with Jinnah over 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 ...

. He was succeeded by

Altaf Husain Altaf Husain ( bn, আলতাফ হোসেইন, ur, ; 26 January 1900 – 25 May 1968) was an educationist, journalist, and Pakistan Movement activist. He is noted as one of the pioneers of print journalism in Pakistan and was the fou ...

who galvanized the Muslims of India for independence by his editorials, which earned him the ire of the Congress Party and of Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy and Governor-General of the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was him ...

both of whom wanted a united India. In 1947, senior ''Dawn'' staff led by

moved to Karachi. So, Karachi became the head office of the newspaper. In 1950, for a brief period, the owners discontinued ''Dawn'' over ownership issues and restarted it as ''Herald''.

Features

Issue of Dawn newspaper published from Karachi on 15th August

''Dawn'' regularly carries syndicated articles from western newspapers such as ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'', ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' and ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

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

Editors

* Pothan Joseph (1944) *

(1944–1965) *

Jamil Ansari Jamil ( ar, جميل) is an Arabic given name. It means "handsome" in Arabic as well as "beautiful". The Latin spelling variants include Gamil (used mainly in Egypt), Cemil (in Turkish), Djemil or Djamel (mainly in North African countries influence ...

(1965–1966) *

Yusuf Haroon Muhammad Yusuf Abdullah Haroon (1916 – 12 February 2011) was a Pakistani businessman and politician who served as the 5th Governor of West Pakistan and 3rd Chief Minister of Sindh. *

* Altaf Gauhar * Mazhar Ali Khan * Ahmad Ali Khan * Tahir Mirza * Saleem Asmi * Abbas Nasir * Zaffar Abbas

Controversies

Relations with WikiLeaks

On 19 May 2011, Dawn Media Group signed a memorandum of understanding with Julian Assange, founder of

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is an international non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder and director and ...

, for the exclusive first use in Pakistan of all the secret US diplomatic cables related to political and other developments in the country.Announcement, Memorandum of Understanding between Dawn Media Group and Sunshine Press Productions
''Dawn'' (newspaper), Published 19 May 2011, Retrieved 29 July 2017 An announcement printed in the newspaper and posted on the website read:

Leak controversy

In 2016, a story, "Act against militants or face international isolation, civilians tell military" by

Cyril Almeida Cyril Almeida(Urdu: سائیرل المیڈا) is a Pakistani journalist who served as the assistant editor and columnist for ''Dawn''. Born and raised in Karachi, Almeida received his B.A from LUMS and studied jurisprudence as a Rhodes Schola ...

, Oxford-educated assistant editor and columnist for ''Dawn'', triggered the resignation of

Information Minister An information minister (also called minister of information) is a position in the governments of some countries responsible for dealing with information matters; it is often linked with censorship and propaganda. Sometimes the position is given to ...

Pervaiz Rashid, after a preliminary investigation established a "lapse" on his part vis-à-vis the publication of the "planted" story.

References

External links

* {{Pakistan Movement English-language newspapers published in Pakistan Mass media in Karachi 1941 establishments in India Newspapers established in 1941 Pakistan Movement Media related to Muhammad Ali Jinnah Dawn Media Group Daily newspapers published in Pakistan