Adil Najam

One can so so much about this picture – from Daily Times – but I just think it isa great picture as a news photograph. So, rather than me saying anything, why don’t you. Suggest a title. Make it funny. Shairi (peotry) is particularly welcome.

(For more on ATP fascination with cops, see here, here, here, here and here)

Owais Mughal

This is the seventh episode in the series of Urdu Press news. The previous six news collection can be read here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

Click on the Urdu news text below to view enlarged and more readable images.

(1) Parveen

This news appears in the daily Nawaiwaqt Lahore, and it talks about how singer Abrar-ul-Haq’s song titled ‘Parveen’ caused a verbal and physical brawl between two groups of people in the town of Pattoki. One group was playing this song loud and the other group didn’t like it too much as they had three women named Parveen living in their households.

Adil Najam

Most of us are very familiar with the Dawn newspaper masthead which proudly proclaims “Founded by Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.” This famous photograph of Mr. Jinnah reading an early issue of Dawn has also been seen many many times by most of us. As the oldest major English daily in Pakistan and with a proud and illustrious history of editorial courage and independence, Dawn has eared a unique and uniquely important position in Pakistani journalism. Its reputation has only been enhanced by the equally – and often even more – courageous journalism of the monthly news magazine Herald, which is also published by the same publishers.

According to the Dawn group and its senor editors and reporters, the newspaper is now under serious pressure from the government for the exact independence and journalistic excellence that has made it so respected amongst Pakistanis. The Dawn group has claimed for some time now that it is being pressured through the withholding of government ads, which are asignificant part of any newspaper’s revenue (and survival) in Pakistan. While it is obviously an advertiser’s choice to advertise wherever they want, the issue of government ads is different and especially a ban on an important and mass-selling newspaper like Dawn is difficult to justify on market rationality.

Things have obviously taken a turn for the worse for Dawn because a long email from Hameed Haroon, the CEO and publisher of the Dawn Group of Newspaper, accompanied by a set of four very detailed annexes is now circulating over email.