Sunday, 20 February, 2011
Up, close and personal hen Mr Hameed Nizami expired forty-nine years ago, I was still a junior at Saint Anthony’s High School, Lahore. But certain memories of my late father are perennially etched in my sub-conscious, and continue to inspire me to this day. He was very hard working and exceptionally disciplined. His work ethic as a journalist has ever since been a source of inspiration for me. Every morning without fail I would see him up and about, working at his desk, writing away editorials on paper sheets cut in single-column widths. It is a rare sight today as editors seldom write. And most do not write at all. Many a time I would witness my father marking his newspaper with a blue pencil for proof and language errors. At home, he would receive no visitors before 11 am. Finished with his editorial functions, he would dress up and proceed to the offices of the Nawa-i-Waqt, then located on the Mall. Despite being a workaholic and keeping a very busy schedule, his time management was remarkable, for my late father had a broad spectrum of friends from all walks of life. He found time to spend with them and even with acquaintances, catching up on political developments in the country. Visiting the Coffee House in the afternoon and the Casino (both restaurants on the Mall are now defunct) in the evenings was his daily routine. Having been the founder president of Muslim Students Federation, the student wing of the Muslim League, he was a quintessential political activist. However, once he founded Nawa–i-Waqt, he eschewed active politics. A self-made man in the real sense of the term, the Nawa-I-Waqt was the result of his sheer hard work and support of some of his personal friends. Although an excellent debater since his college days, after becoming a journalist he shunned public speaking. It does seem strange today when many editors think that the biggest news in their newspaper is themselves. The late Hameed Nizami’s name
rarely, if ever, appeared in his own newspaper, except on the print line. I would witness my late father replying to each and every letter written to him till late in the night. He was a voracious reader of Urdu, Persian, English and Punjabi literature. His reading appetite included Persian poets Saa’di, Hafiz and Iqbal. Being a great follower of the Sufi tradition, many a time I would see him engrossed in reciting Bulleh Shah. He was not just kind, compassionate and generous to his friends and his nuclear family, but also to his brothers and indeed to all his relatives. He supported them all through thick and thin, footing the education bill of his brothers, providing one of them the sustenance for long years in England and setting up another in business. My late father was very particular that his children got the best education. I studied at a school where Urdu was the secondary language. But he saw to it that my sister and I received quality education in Urdu from a special teacher. This helped me immensely in becoming a bilingual journalist, equally proficient in Urdu and English. Despite his busy routine my father devoted quality time to his family, and Sundays were reserved for the children. He would organize picnics along with families of his friends. He was fond of Western music and had a considerable collection of Jazz long-play records. Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Harry Belafonte and Peggy Lee were amongst his favourites. My father was also an avid viewer of English cinema. Those were the days when the culture of going to watch latest American and European films in the cinema houses of Lahore was still alive. And my parents were regular visitors to the cinema. Traveling was another passion of my late father. Being an active member of the International Press Institute (IPI) and the Commonwealth Press Union (CPU) he rarely missed a meeting in different capitals of the world. In an era when most media barons have developed a voracious appetite for acquiring property it would seem odd that Mr Hameed Nizami died without even a house in his name. The house in which we lived on the Temple Road, posthumously named after him, was rented from the singer Iqbal Bano who had acquired it as evacuee property. My father is a role model for me. His work ethic, integrity, humanity and selflessness are goalposts for anyone trying to
achieve excellence in the profession of journalism, which he considered a mission. In an interview with Shafi Aqueel of Jang he rightly said, “in order to be a good journalist one should be well educated, well read, current and knowledgeable, but on top of these a good journalist should be hard working”. Ceaseless in the quest of these ideals, he passed away at the young age of 44, and though tragically short it was a life well spent – exactly half of it in service to journalism – and he left us with his memories and a large body of work. And an institution built from scratch with the sweat of his brow that in his time served the national interest better than most journalistic entities due to his unstinted principled stance for a democratic polity where equity and justice reigned supreme – exactly the Quaid’s vision – and steadfast against forces of obscurantism, bigotry and exploitation. Dispossessed of his legacy, as I try to retrace his footsteps and have launched a media and publishing house, the guiding light remains undimmed and the inspiration behind the venture is my late father’s memory, his principles, his work ethic and, with the exception of a few friends, to be beholden to none but to one’s conscience. That is his true legacy, and none can dispossess me from that.
2 Hameed Nizami’s progressive ideas 4 Hameed Nizami, his life and times
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By Arif Nizami
the review
Hameed Nizami:
Hameed Nizami’s progressive
Illustrated & Designed by Babur Saghir
02 - 03
Sunday, 20 February, 2011
the review
a progressive In 1940s, these ideas of Hameed Nizami were quite revolutionary and certainly not reactionary
By Basharat Hussain Qizilbash
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ost people are generally concerned about their personal well-being, only. There is nothing wrong with this approach towards life. However, the great among us are those that strive for the greater good of humanity. That is why they are remembered and respected even after their demise. Hameed Nizami, the founder of Urdu newspaper Nawa-i-Waqt, was one such figure. He founded the Nawa-i-Waqt on the explicit instructions of the Quaidi-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah in 1940 for a greater cause: The cause being to rally the Muslims of India to the idea of Pakistan as espoused by the Quaid and the All-India Muslim League. At that point, he was offered backing for his project by the feudal bigwigs like Mumtaz Daultana. Hameed Nizami declined, raising the resources from his friends only because he did not want to be beholden to people with agendas of their own. Hameed Nizami’s critics could disagree with his cause but they could never doubt or question his commitment and sincerity towards it. Today, he is not among us to explain the philosophy behind his brand of journalism but his editorials as preserved in the archives of the Nawa-i-Waqt speak volumes about what he stood for. The owners of the newspaper after his demise have often used the platform of Nawa-i-Waqt for self-aggrandizement by towing the line of the government of the day. That is not Hameed Nizami’s legacy, as from the very beginning he eschewed such policies and there are myriad examples to amply illustrate that. During the 1940s, the British government distributed the state largesse among newspapers to
He knew that the top leadership of the League was dominated by feudal aristocracy that would not take his such progressive suggestions kindly, yet he spoke out his mind because he considered Nawa-i-Waqt to be the voice of the aspirations of the Indian Muslims and not just a tool of the aristocratic class
gain support for the colonial war policies, particularly in Punjab because this province was both the breadbasket as well as the fighting arm of the empire. While several Lahore-based newspapers ‘sold their soul’ to support the imperialist war, Hameed Nizami refused to compromise the integrity and independence of the Nawa-i-Waqt. That is why, in a bold editorial of February 23, 1945, he not only charged the government of bribing the newspapers but also demanded of the Punjab government to make public the names of those newspapers that had been the beneficiaries of the state bounty. The government hedged the issue for quite a while but then on the question raised by Malik Barkat Ali on the floor of the Punjab Assembly, the government did admit that it distributed Rs52,000 in 194243 and Rs38,000 in 1943-44 to ‘buy the conscience’ of certain newspapers but refused to disclose their names in the name of ‘public interest.’ This shows that Nawa-i-Waqt was at least not a ‘wazifa khor’ toady of the British government and hence, could pursue independent editorial policies purely in the public interest. Nawa-i-Waqt was also labeled as a politically conservative newspaper. Well, conservatism can be defined in different ways but one of its peculiar characteristics includes the preservation of traditional institutions such as the landed interests. The ideas of classical conservatism can be traced in the late 18th Century writings of the French philosopher Edmund Burke written in reaction to the liberal spirit released by the historic French Revolution of 1789. The crux of Burke’s argument was that not all human beings act sensibly and responsibly but only those who own property. As only those who own property were expected to act sensibly, therefore the ownership of property could not be shared by all human beings. Today, Burke’s ideas may sound weird but they had a lot of appeal among the conserva-
ideas for
Pakistan
Hameed Nizami according to the Justice Munir Report:
On the side of religious moderation, tolerance
T tives who remained opposed to the idea of distribution of agricultural land to the masses. However, in the industrial sphere, the conservatives are great proponents of private market capitalism as against progressives’ support to the state’s control over the economic means of production and distribution. Under Hameed Nizami, the Nawa-i-Waqt advocated enlightened policies in the agrarian and industrial domains of the economy. This may be very surprising for many but it was so when one reads some of the editorials of the Nawa-i-Waqt of 1944. By 1944, the idea of Pakistan had gained a considerable ground and people had begun to discuss the possible political and economic systems that the state of Pakistan could adopt after its creation. When the Muslim League announced to hold a meeting of its ‘Tameeri Committee’ in Delhi on September 3, 1944, the Nawa-i-Waqt took the lead by writing a landmark editorial on August 30, in which it clearly spelt out the agricultural and industrial policies that Pakistan should adopt. The editorial entitled ‘League Tameeri Committee,’ while emphasizing upon the importance of agriculture in the overall economy, proposed in unambiguous terms that agriculture could prosper only if the Pakistan government adopted the policy of collective farming, for which it was necessary that the land should be owned by the state and not privately by the people. It argued that 95 percent of the Muslim landowners owned small pieces of land which did not satisfy even their personal wants whereas a small number of landlords owned big chunks. The editorial anticipated strong opposition from the big feudal lords and Taluqdars but insisted that the state should not become hostage to their interests because according to the Quran and Islam the land did not belong to them but to the whole millat, and therefore, the greater good of the nation could not be sacrificed at the altar of the personal benefits and comforts of a few big zamindars. While commenting on the industrial situation, the same editorial pointed out that the Pakistan areas were far behind the rest of India. It
oday’s Pakistan is witnessing the rise of the religious right with proportions unparalleled in its chequered history. Is this a recent phenomenon or does its roots lay much deeper in our past? Some think that this problem started with the rule of Gen. Zia in 1977 while others insist that a wake-up call was issued about growing religious radicalism in the judicial report penned down by Justice Munir and Kayani in 1954 to enquire into the anti-Ahmadiya riots of 1953 in the Punjab. Many were carried away by the religious frenzy gen-
erated by the heat of the events, however, the few voices of sanity and moderation that refused to be carried away or swept by the prevalent religious jingoism included the voice of Hameed Nizami, the founding editor of the ‘Nawa-i-Waqt’. Although it is 2011 yet the present tolerance and suffocation is quite reminiscent of the 1953, and therefore, the observations made by Hameed Nizami before that court of enquiry are excerpted below so that these may serve as a source of inspiration for all those who stand for religious moderation and tolerance.
Excerpts: SECTION 144 ORDERS ENFORCED AGAINST PUBLIC MEETINGS IN MOSQUES: SARGODHA AND GUJRANWALA CASES
highlighted the fact that while factories were set up in the other provinces of India to supply the needs of World War-II, not a single factory was set in the Pakistan provinces, so much so that the Punjab which was called the fighting arm of India had to depend upon the Central Provinces for the supply of its arms. The editorial reminded the Muslim League that if it did not want Pakistan to be dependent upon Hindustan and other countries then it would have to develop factories for railways, hydro-electric power, arms, ammunition, etc. It informed the League that the industrial development would succeed if all the industries would be owned by the state and not left in the hands of the individuals who would put their personal interests before the interests of the whole nation. It cautioned the members of the upcoming ‘Tameeri Committee’ that they would be successful in their task only if they would plan Pakistan’s future economic development in such a manner that its purpose should be to benefit the whole nation and not just a certain class of the people. In 1940s, these ideas of Hameed Nizami were quite revolutionary, and certainly not reactionary. He knew that the top leadership of the League was dominated by feudal aristocracy that would not take his such progressive suggestions kindly, yet he spoke out his mind because he considered Nawa-i-Waqt to be the voice of the aspirations of the Indian Muslims and not just a tool of the aristocratic class. He was cognizant of the dangers of personal greed and how it could obstruct the economic development of the nascent state that is why he advocated collective farming and state controlled industrialization so that every Pakistani could have a feeling of having a stake in the development of the country. (The writer is an academic and journalist and can be reached at qizilbash2000@yahoo.com )
While several Lahore-based newspapers ‘sold their soul’ to support the imperialist war, Hameed Nizami refused to compromise the integrity and independence of the Nawa-i-Waqt
Orders issued by District Magistrates in pursuance of the directions given by the Provincial Government were enforced in certain places by the prosecution of the offenders. Having come across two posters expressing resentment over the application of section 144 to mosques and announcing a public meeting in the Barkat Ali Muhammadan Hall on 13th July to consider the situation arising therefrom, Mr. Anwar Ali on 3rd July 1952 wrote a note complaining that much mischievous propaganda
was being done by the Ahrar and their friends against Government, that it was being given out that section 144 had been applied to mosques and the right to worship abrogated and that unless something on a big scale were done by the Public Relations Department to check this propaganda, popular ill-will against the Government would be the natural result. Mr. Qurban Ali Khan agreed with this, remarking that the Director of Public Relations was their only source.
Messrs. Hamid Nizami and Mazhar Ali Khan were also called by me yesterday. I made it clear to them from the very out-set that my intention in calling them was only to explain the whole position to them and nothing else and that they were quite free to put their own interpretation on what I told them. They both considered, that whatever this Government had done was worthy of popular support and calculated to strengthen the integrity of the country. Mr. Hamid Nizami, however, said that he feared if he were to say so in his organ, the newspapers favoured by the Government as well as the
Muslim League would be the first to denounce him as an Ahmadi for increasing their own circulation. He also said that the very purpose for which curbing action was being taken against the Ahrar would be defeated unless the newspapers also co-operated with Government and did not help in the spread of the virus through their columns. Mr. Mazhar Ali Khan said that the root cause of this trouble was that Government had themselves made religion their source of slogans and strength. He added that if one group could exploit religion how could the others be denied its use for furthering their own ends.
Mr. Daultana has claimed that from about the third week of July the ‘Afaq’, the ‘Ehsan’ and the ‘Maghribi Pakistan,’ each of which had received a large amount of money from Government, had blacked out the anti-Ahmadiya agitation, but from what we have presently said it will be quite clear that each of these papers continued to write on the subject throughout the period. When Dr. Ishtiaq Husain Qureshi, Minister for Information and Broadcasting, came to Lahore in the later half of July, 1952, it was complained to him that the Punjab Government was itself encouraging the antiAhmadiya agitation, and Mr. Hamid Nizami, editor of the ‘Nawa-i-Waqt’, openly charged Mir Nur Ahmad, Director, Public Relations Department, with complicity in this conspiracy. According to Mr. Nizami, Dr. Qureshi, when he came to Lahore in July or August 1952, invited the editors of some local newspapers to a private tea at which some officials, including Mir Nur Ahmad, and the editors of all important dailies of Lahore were present. In this party the subject of anti-Ahmadiya agitation happened to be discussed, and Dr. Qureshi remarked that the campaign which was being carried on in the press against Chaudhri Zafrullah Khan was detrimental to the interests of the country and was likely to lead to serious consequences. Guests present at the party expressed their own opinions in the matter. Mr. Nizami kept quiet and Dr. Qureshi asked him why he was not expressing his opinion. Mr. Nizami replied that it was futile for him to give his opinion because the campaign was being carried on by newspapers which were being subsidised by Government. On being required by the Doctor to explain what he meant, Mr. Nizami said that the entire agitation had been inspired by Government and that it could be stopped immediately if the Government so liked because the papers which were engaged in the campaign could not afford to disobey the directions of Government. Dr. Qureshi said that he had heard similar rumours before but that
he had not been supplied with any concrete facts, Mr. Nizami then pointed to Mir Nur Ahmad and said that he was the arch criminal in the matter because it was he who was having all articles on the movement written. Dr. Qureshi asked Mr. Nizami if he could prove the allegation. Mr. Nizami replied that if Mir Nur Ahmad denied the allegation, he would be willing to prove it, Mir Nur Ahmad heard all this but kept quiet. Questioned by Dr. Qureshi whether he would repeat this allegation before the Prime Minister, Mr. Nizami said that he would. About a month later, Mr. Nizami went down to Karachi and met the Prime Minister who asked him if he could give a list of the articles which had been inspired by Mir Nur Ahmad. Mr. Nizami said that he would do so on his next visit to Karachi. When Mr. Nizami next visited Karachi about a month afterwards, he took with him the file of articles which, according to him, had been inspired by Mir Nur Ahmad, and handed it over to Mr. Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani, requesting him to show it to the Prime Minister. On a later occasion, when Mr. Nizami was sent for by the Home Secretary, he repeated this allegation before him. A day or two later he did the same before Mr. Qurban Ali Khan and warned him that if things continued as they were, the Province would be ruined. The same complaint was made by Mr. Nizami before the Home Secretary when the latter called a meeting of the editors of newspapers on 27th or 28th February. Mr. Nizami also repeated his allegations before the Governor. Mr. Nizami had a talk on the subject with Mr. Daultana in September 1952. Mr. Daultana remarked that Mir Nur Ahmad was ruining the Government and that he intended to remove him within a few days, but Mr. Nizami replied that all this was a lie and that he did not believe Mr. Daultana because what Mir Nur Ahmad was doing, was at the instance of Mr. Daultana himself. Mr. Nizami’s evidence is fully corroborated by the evidence of Dr. Qureshi.
Sunday, 20 February, 2011
Interview – Dr. Mubashir Hasan
Hameed Nizami,
his life and times
An intimate friend recounts the larger than life persona of Hameed Nizami, a life most cruelly cut short at its prime by fate yet was not wanting in terms of its achievement or eventfulness, and, above all, the legend of his convictions and how the iconic figure stood up for them By Ali Tahir Mughees
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hen one asked him to describe t h e person of Hameed Nizami and his association with the iconic figure, Dr Mubashir Hasan remarked that it indeed was very difficult for him to talk about an extremely close and dear friend. But then he started reminiscing, and with quintessential straightforwardness, Dr Mubashir gave us an intimate account of the life and times of Hameed Nizami, his larger than life persona, the legend of his convictions and how he stood up for them. He also mentioned “a decision that he regrets to this date”. Following are the excerpts from the interview: “Hameed Nizami was a friend of my elder brother, Dr Shabbar Hasan who was then in King Edward Medical College. In 1937, I came to Government College, Lahore. Hameed Nizami had already done his Masters in English and was then studying Persian. “I met Hameed Nizami as a friend of my elder brother. In 1939, when I was to sit for my F.Sc. exam, Hameed helped me a lot in English poetry. I found him to be a person who really enjoyed poetry and through poetry he tried to explain the world as it was. “To me he was a very likable man, although not to so many others.
The advent of Nawa-i-Waqt
”Hameed Nizami, Dr Shabbar and C.R. Alsam founded Nawa-iWaqt as a bi-monthly [in 1940]. The Nawa-i-Waqt was against British Raj, feudal system and capitalism.
The paper bitterly criticized the democracy introduced by the British under the Government of India Act 1935. It also took on the Punjab government of that time and highlighted the common man’s issues. “This was in total contrast with other Urdu newspapers that were on the payroll of the government. Those days Hindu newspapers, such as Prataap, Veer Bharat and Milaap, were very popular. Hameed Nizami took up the Muslim
causes, projected Mohammad Ali Jinnah and the Muslim League and opposed the Indian National Congress. Incidentally, he was also a recognized short story writer, and his work regularly found space in highbrow literary magazines, Humayun and Nayrang-e-Khayal. “Literally in no time Hameed Nizami emerged as a respected journalist from the Punjab who was often invited to Delhi, Bombay and other places in India. Those who came across him were invariably
surprised by his youth. A mirthful aside is that as was customary in those days to add Maulana ahead of the names of the respected, like Maulana before Zafar Ali Khan, Hameed Nizami too was occasionally addressed as Maulana. “The Muslim intellectuals were so inspired and stirred up by the Nawa-i-Waqt and there was great demand that it be converted into a daily. Finally Hameed Nizami and another young friend Hamid Mehmood obliged. The paper’s popularity grew in leaps and bounds and Nawa-i-Waqt had a great role in the Pakistan Movement.
guide the CM. Perhaps to no avail, as when the Nawab was dismissed, several hundred files were lying at his desk. “The Nawab was opposed by Mumtaz Daultana and his patron, Liaqat Ali Khan. When Daultana replaced Mamdot, he banned Nawa-i-Waqt but Hameed Nizami continued printing it under another name. A bitter quarrel between Nawa-i-Waqt and Daultana and Liaqat Ali Khan ensued. That was also the first conflict between Punjab and the central government that continues to this date.
Kudoos from the Quaid
Long, dark night of martial law
”Hameed Nizami was a man with an independent bent of mind, and never in awe of the government. He never hesitated in fighting his battles alone. Even with the Quaid, his correspondence reflected equipoise. ”While at Islamia College, Hameed had founded the Muslim Students Federation, and since it supported Jinnah’s political vision, it became extremely popular with the Muslims. Hameed Nizami was a bitter critic of the Congress leadership and Gandhi, Nehru, Patel and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad bore the brunt of his pen. “I remember the MSF Convention in Jalandhar, where the Quaid was present. Hameed Nizami made a fiery policy-inspiring speech that was cheered by the audience no end. As the delegation was about to leave, the Quaid patted Hameed on the back, saying: ‘Young man, you have a great future’. ”After the Partition, Nawai-Waqat continued to serve and guide the Muslims and Hameed Nizami became a patron of the first chief minister of the Punjab, Nawab Iftikhar Hussain Khan Mamdot. Mamdot was a lazy man who would not get to work until midday and senior civil servants used to seek Hameed Nizami’s intervention to
”Hameed Nizami was against religious extremism of the kind Maulana Maudoodi espoused. During the anti-Qadiani movement of the early 1950s, Hameed Nizami’s house was pelted with stones by mullahs. Up till Gen. Ayub’s martial law, Hameed Nizami continued to play a pivotal role in Pakistan’s politics. On October 28, 1958 when Hameed’s mother passed away, he, his spouse and I left for Sangla Hill, at a stopover when I commented that the nation was in for a long, dark night, Hameed concurred. The martial law and his helplessness against it indeed left Hameed heartbroken. “By that time Hameed had acquired international status and was highly respected abroad. An anecdote from a dinner by the government, where the Duke of Edinburgh asked him about his vocation, and he answered back that he was a journalist. The Duke then followed up with what side was he on, to which Hameed said that he was ‘neutral’. Another question, ‘you mean to say you take everyone to task’, Hameed said that he was independent. ”The martial law accelerated Hameed’s coronary problem. Yet even after a massive heart attack on February 24, 1962, he would not
allow the news to be published in his own newspaper. Actually never had Hameed Nizami’s picture ever been printed in his paper.
The mistake and the lasting regret
“The doctors had told us that he would not survive and we didn’t know what to do. I made a mistake by calling his younger brother Majeed and asked him to come back from London as all his close friends – Shorash kashmiri, Mian Mohammad Amin and other had advised me to. That was a decision that I regret to this date. “No one was allowed to see Hameed except for his wife me and Dr Shabbar. One day I went to Hameed’s bedside, pressed his hand and said that he would recover soon and that I have called Majid back to Pakistan. Hameed Nizami opened his eyes and asked me as to why had I done that. That reaction was a surprise for me. Shortly afterwards he passed away. ”It was a great shock for me. I was his most intimate friend, we used to meet every day, sometimes twice a day, I was the only baraati who on his wedding accompanied him to Khanpur. “After his demise, when his papers were checked, perhaps expecting this fate, Hameed Nizami had clearly written the details of his assets and he had also left instructions for his wife to consult all financial matters with Mian Amin and Nazir Ahmad, his banker, and to discuss all personal matters with me. “Hameed Nizami’s death was a great relief to the Ayub government. From Hameed Nizami’s wife and children, Nawa-iWaqt’s management went to Majid under mysterious circumstances. I’m old enough not to be surprised by radical changes in personalities and institutions, and the Nawa-iWaqt of today is a similar departure from what it was under Hameed Nizami”.