''Dawn'' is a Pakistani

English-language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

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 in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

Muhammad Ali Jinnah Muhammad Ali Jinnah (born Mahomedali Jinnahbhai; 25 December 187611 September 1948) was a barrister, politician, and the founder of Pakistan. Jinnah served as the leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1913 until the inception of Pa ...

in 1941. It is the largest English newspaper in

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

, and is widely considered the country's

newspaper of record A newspaper of record is a major national newspaper with large newspaper circulation, circulation whose editorial and news-gathering functions are considered authoritative and independent; they are thus "newspapers of record by reputation" and i ...

. ''Dawn'' is the flagship publication of the

Dawn Media Group Pakistan Herald Limited, commonly known as the Dawn Media Group, is a Pakistani media company based in Karachi, Sindh. It publishes the ''Dawn'' newspaper and operates a TV channel, radio stations and websites. It is a listed member of All Pa ...

, 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''.

, 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, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

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 founded in 1906 in Dhaka, British India with the goal of securing Muslims, Muslim interests in South Asia. Although initially espousing a united India with interfaith unity, the Muslim L ...

. The first issue was printed at

Latifi Press Latifi Press was founded in 1933 in Delhi by Abdul Latif Khan. It printed several important publications for the Muslim League and most notably, first issue of ''Dawn'' newspaper, the mouth piece of Muslim League and edited by Muhammad Ali Jinn ...

on 12 October 1942. Based in

Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

, it also maintains offices in

Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...

Peshawar Peshawar is the capital and List of cities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by population, largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is the sixth most populous city of Pakistan, with a district p ...

Quetta Quetta is the capital and largest city of the Pakistani province of Balochistan. It is the ninth largest city in Pakistan, with an estimated population of over 1.6 million in 2024. It is situated in the south-west of the country, lying in a ...

and the capital city of

Islamabad Islamabad (; , ; ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's tenth-most populous city with a population of over 1.1 million and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital Territory. Bu ...

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

Zaffar Abbas Zaffar Abbas is a Pakistani journalist who has been the editor of Pakistan's English-language daily ''Dawn'', since October 2010. Career Abbas started his journalism career in 1981 with '' The Star'' after joining the Dawn Media Group. Between ...

History

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

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

. Under the instruction of Jinnah, it became the official organ of the

All India Muslim League The All-India Muslim League (AIML) was a political party founded in 1906 in Dhaka, British India with the goal of securing Muslim interests in South Asia. Although initially espousing a united India with interfaith unity, the Muslim League lat ...

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 The All-India Muslim League (AIML) was a political party founded in 1906 in Dhaka, British India with the goal of securing Muslim interests in South Asia. Although initially espousing a united India with interfaith unity, the Muslim League lat ...
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 Pothan Joseph (1892–1972) was a journalist in 20th-century India whose career spanned the twenty years before and twenty years after India's independence. He worked with notable people of the time such as Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Annie Besant, ...

, 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 was a religiopolitical and social movement that emerged in the early 20th century as part of a campaign that advocated the creation of an Islamic state in parts of what was then British Raj. It was rooted in the two-nation the ...

. He was succeeded by

Altaf Husain Altaf Husain (, ; 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 founding editor and the first editor-in-chief of ...

who galvanized the Muslims of India for independence by his editorials, which earned him the ire of the Congress Party and of

Lord Mountbatten Admiral of the Fleet (Royal Navy), Admiral of the Fleet Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (born Prince Louis of Battenberg; 25 June 1900 – 27 August 1979), commonly known as Lord Mountbatten, was ...

, the last Viceroy and Governor-General of the

British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

both of whom wanted a united India. In 1947, due to the

Partition of India The partition of India in 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, the Dominion of India, Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. The Union of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Paki ...

, senior ''Dawn'' staff led by

moved to Karachi, which led to that city becoming 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 publis ...

'', ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' and ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

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

Publication of the US diplomatic cables

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

Julian Assange Julian Paul Assange ( ; Hawkins; born 3 July 1971) is an Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. He came to international attention in 2010 after WikiLeaks published a series of News leak, leaks from Chels ...

, founder of

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is a non-profit media organisation and publisher of leaked documents. It is funded by donations and media partnerships. It has published classified documents and other media provided by anonymous sources. It was founded in 2006 by ...

, 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:

Resignation of Pervaiz Rashid

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

Pervaiz Rashid Pervaiz Rashid () is a Pakistani politician who served as the Federal Minister of Information, Broadcasting, and National Heritage and Minister for Law, Justice and Human Rights in the Third Sharif ministry. A member of Pakistan Muslim League ...

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

Editorial stance

''Dawns

editorial An editorial, or leading article (UK) or leader (UK), is an article or any other written document, often unsigned, written by the senior editorial people or publisher of a newspaper or magazine, that expresses the publication's opinion about ...

stance has varied over time, influenced by its editors and the prevailing political context.

, the second editor of ''Dawn'', was known for his confrontational editorials that often challenged governmental policies, maintaining the newspaper's editorial independence despite financial pressures from

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a Product (business), product or Service (economics), service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of int ...

boycotts. He staunchly supported the

Pakistan Muslim League The Pakistan Muslim League (; known as PML), is the name of several different Pakistani political parties that have dominated the centre-right platform in the country. The ''Muslim League'' (the original successor of the All-India Muslim ...

and was critical of governments not aligned with it. Husain's

foreign policy Foreign policy, also known as external policy, is the set of strategies and actions a State (polity), state employs in its interactions with other states, unions, and international entities. It encompasses a wide range of objectives, includ ...

views favored a military alliance with the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, shifting only when

geopolitical Geopolitics () is the study of the effects of Earth's geography on politics and international relations. Geopolitics usually refers to countries and relations between them, it may also focus on two other kinds of states: ''de facto'' independen ...

circumstances led him to support ties with

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, regardless of its

communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state in which the totality of the power belongs to a party adhering to some form of Marxism–Leninism, a branch of the communist ideology. Marxism–Leninism was ...

. After Husain's tenure, the newspaper experienced a rapid succession of editors, each introducing their own unique editorial policies. Jamil Ansari, for example, closely aligned with the Ayub Khan administration, exercising caution in editorial decisions to avoid offending the government. In contrast,

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. Early life and family Born in 1916 to Abdullah Haroon, Yusuf ...

's brief editorship was marked by a conservative approach to content and layout, aiming to preserve the newspaper's independence from state influence. Altaf Gauhar, successor of Yusuf Haroon, notably transitioned from being an architect of restrictive press laws to advocating for

free speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recognise ...

, critiquing government policies through his editorials. His successor, Mazhar Ali Khan, brought a progressive stance to the newspaper, focusing on professional

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...

and reasoned critique of government policies.

Ahmad Ali Khan Sayyid Ahmad Ali Khan (Bengali: ''সৈয়দ আহমদ আলী খান'') (died 30 October 1824), popularly known as Walla Jah or Ahmad Ali Khan of Murshidabad, was the Nawab of Bengal and Bihar. He succeeded his half-brother, Zain ...

, the longest serving editor of ''Dawn'', stabilized the newspaper's editorial direction, blending a progressive outlook with cautious navigation of the restrictive political environment under

Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (12 August 192417 August 1988) was a Pakistani military officer and statesman who served as the sixth president of Pakistan from 1978 until Death of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, his death in an airplane crash in 1988. He also se ...

. Despite the constraints, the newspaper managed to subtly critique the regime's policies, especially those that contradicted the principles of democracy and civil liberties. The period following Khan's tenure saw editors such as Saleem Asmi, Tahir Mirza, and

Abbas Nasir Abbas Nasir is a Pakistani journalist and former editor of Pakistan's English language daily ''DAWN''. Previously he was the head of the BBC Urdu Service, where he has been appointed as Executive Editor for the Asia and the Pacific Region at BBC ...

each contributing to ''Dawns development in their own unique ways. Asmi expanded the newspaper's coverage to include the

arts The arts or creative arts are a vast range of human practices involving creativity, creative expression, storytelling, and cultural participation. The arts encompass diverse and plural modes of thought, deeds, and existence in an extensive ...

and launched new editions. Nasir adapted the newspaper to the digital age, enhancing its online presence and emphasizing the need for

investigative journalism Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, racial injustice, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend m ...

and a diverse range of op-ed contributors.

Editors

(1944) *

(1944–1965) * Jamil Ansari (1965–1966) *

(1966) * Altaf Gauhar (1969–1973) * Mazhar Ali Khan (1973) *

(1973–2000) * Saleem Asmi (2000–2003) * Tahir Mirza (2003–2006) *

(2006–2010) *

(2010–present)

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 History of the All-India Muslim League Liberalism in Pakistan Progressivism in Pakistan Newspapers published in Delhi 20th-century establishments in Delhi