Tayyab Husnain

L1F15BSMC0076

PAKISTANI MEDIA IN AYUB KHAN'S ERA

Submitted to :

Sir Zabir Saeed

GENERAL AYUB KHAN

What is Media ? Media is the collective communication outlets or tools that are used to store and deliver information or data .It is either associated with communication media, or the specialized communication businesses such as: print media and the press, photography, advertising, cinema, broadcasting (radio and television) and publishing.

The decade of 1960s in Pakistan witnessed modernization under General Ayub Khan, who passionately believed in the progressive-liberal and modernist version of Islam. His broad-mindedness and liberalism towards Islam was explicitly manifested in the official Islamic policy pursued during the first half of his regime from 1958 to 1965 when he governed the country in an authoritarian manner. During these years, the modernization program was implemented through public policies aimed at bringing about a progressive change in the constitutional, legal and social spheres of the country. It was, however, forced as well as highly selective and authoritarian in nature. The military regime pushed its

Muhammad Ayub Khan was born on May 14, 1907, in the village of Rehana near Haripur, in Hazara District. He was the first child of the second wife of Mir Dad Khan, who was a Risaldar Major in Hodson’s Horse. According to Ayub, his father had the greatest influence on his character, outlook, and attitude towards life. He was the second President of Pakistan. He was the first native four-star general and also the self-appointed and only Field Marshal of Pakistan Army till date. He became president in 1958 following a bloodless military coup removing President Iskander Mirza and served as president till 25 March 1969's resignation among a political upheaval in East Pakistan.

modernization agenda despite opposition and resentment from many sections of the society. Nonetheless, the second half of the regime 1965-69, which was ‘quasi-authoritarian in nature’, saw a reversal of his official policy towards Islam, since his popularity was undermined, and he needed popular support for his regime. The present article explores the modernization measures undertaken during the regime of Ayub Khan, and analyzes the shift in the official Islamic policy in the country.

After 11 years of revolution of Pakistan, it was taken over by doctorial government inspite of democratic government. In the regime of ayub media became restricted. All news paper owned by different politicians restricted even though many of them were closed.In other words it is known as “BLACK LAW” till now in the history of journalism.Newspapers were diminished only to criticize and backup the social issues and never let the attention of readers towards government policies. The first step in introducing media laws in the country was done by the then military ruler Field Martial Ayub Khan who promulgated the Press and Publication Ordinance (PPO) in 1962. The law empowered the authorities to confiscate newspapers, close down news providers, and arrest journalists. Using these laws, Ayub Khan nationalised large parts of the press and took over one of the two largest news agencies. The other agencies was pushed into severe crisis where and had to seek financial support from the government. Pakistan Radio and TV, which made was established in mid-1960’s was also brought under the strict control of the government. In 1961, Press laws were reformed and all the newspapers strongly condemned that move and demanded that Ayub government should revise it. So in 1963, government revised it but still it was without much flexibility. According to the Press Act of 1823, declaration was submitted to the government official (Deputy Commissioner) who was not supposed to decline it as it was not considered a license. Ayub government announced that Deputy Commissioner had the right to refuse the declaration so for the first time it was treated as a license. It was a strong check against anti-government newspapers. District Magistrates started a practice with the support of government to gather secret information regarding the person who filed the declaration. So it became a common practice that the applicant was blamed in any charge by the Commissioner and he gave a verdict against him. This was against the ethics of law that Commissioner was given the right to blame and also to make a decision. Advertising plays a major role in profit taking of newspapers and government sector advertisements are very important for any newspaper. Governments usually use this policy to pressurize newspapers and governments do not give advertisements to anti-government newspapers. Ayub government also used this famous tool to manipulate newspapers. In Pakistan almost all the printing material is imported and import

license is required to import these materials. Ayub government restricted the quantity of import material for anti-government newspapers to pressurize them and to stop their circulation on a large scale.During 1965 war, radio, television and newspapers supported government stance and the unrealistic and exaggerated stance regarding the victory in war was presented to the people. But when Tashqand agreement was signed in Jan 1966 and people protested against it because government was declaring it as victory and Tashqand was humiliation in the eyes of the people. So protests against government started and a student died. This helped to build a mass movement against the government and ultimately it ended on the resign of Gen Ayub Khan in March 1969. It was a direct result of a wrong media policy by hiding facts from the government.Government celebrated “A decade of development” in 1968 and radio television and newspapers were used as mouth piece of government. Mass media is a source by which rulers can well understand what people think and what they want and it plays a role of a watchdog. They give direct response to government policies because they are directly affected by that policy. Ayub Khan closed that channel so government remained blind to public opinion and it resulted in severe hatred against government policies which ultimately lead to the fall of Ayub Khan. In Ayub’s age newspapers faced a big challenge because newspapers were habitual of keeping their focus on politics since 1857 in Indo-Pak. So to maintain the interest of the readers in the newspapers was a big challenge as martial law government put ban on all political news. This resulted in an effort on the behalf of newspapers to seek other topics and they started to publish different supplements like Sports Supplements, Women Supplement, and Youth Supplement etc. So the focus shifted to social life. In the mean while ‘Imroz’ hired a woman reporter and started to publish an article on the problems of women and its title was “Khatoon ki Nazar Main”. Imroz was the first newspaper to introduce such trends in newspapers. After the efforts of ‘Imroz’, Mashriq and Kohistan from Lahore started to publish women Pages. Feature writing also got a new dimension. The features along with the pictures were printed. Some newspapers got the attention of the public by publishing film pages and film bulletins. It gave rise to glamorous journalism. It also created a bad impact on those magazines that were purely film magazines. So with the variety of film pages in daily newspapers, the purely film based magazines just disappeared gradually because they lost leadership. The trend also shifted to weekly and episodically features. These features covered the social and cultural aspects. The entry of television affected the readership of the newspapers. Because poets and writers were writing for the newspapers without any financial gain. Television ended this trend and they were paid for writing anything for the television. So they stopped writing for the newspapers and gradually the newspapers lost readership. Periodical journalism also went to decline because

all the newspapers gradually started to publish in different supplements where all the material for different age group people was present in one single newspaper.

Press and Publication Ordinance (PPO) This ordinance was passed in Field Marshal Ayub Khan’s regime in 1963. This ordinance contained the harshest of laws curtailing freedom of expression and the progressive development of the media and leading to the March 1969 relinquishing of power by President Ayub Khan to General Yahya Khan who imposed martial law. It was formed and enforced to keep the newspapers under government’s control. It was a black law completely boycotted by media organizations and journalists. In 1963, West Pakistan Press and Publications Ordinance and East Pakistan Press and Publications Ordinance were introduced by the provincial governments, the pressure built by these provincial laws resulted into an amendment in PPO but even after that its harshness remained same. In 1964, National Press Trust was established and all the PPL papers were given to this monster. NPT had right to take over any such newspaper, magazine which is apparently financially not able to run the newspaper or is dangerous to country’s security.

Progressive papers limited:- Ayub khan targeted PPL at first because of its worth. It was a organization of press by faiz ahmed faiz and syed sibit hussain who were heavily penalized by ayub khan because they wrote in favor of democracy and against dictator ship. It had following publications under PPL

Pakistan times

Amroz

Lael o nahar

It was taken over on April 18 1959 by the government.

National press trust:-

After 5 years of taking position on PPL government introduced NPT under which amroz, Pakistan times launched again

Associated press of Pakistan:-

After making such decision Ayub government took over APP and came forward and gave the reason behind it that due to great recession and corruption issues

government has to step forward, but the basic reason behind this took over was to take control on news agency. News manager of ppl Lahore zameer quraishi was murdered by unknown person

Newspapers Nationalize in General Ayub Khan Era

I. IMROOZ

II. MASHRIQ

III. Pakistan Times

In 1948, Mian Iftikhar-ud-Din started Imrooz from Lahore which is considered a milestone in Pakistani journalism its editor was Maulana Chiragh Hassan Hasrat and Faiz Ahmed Faiz; Mahammad Salwar and Ayub Kirmani were its main writers. At that time, layouts of newspapers were not good enough and it was the Imrooz which introduced the latest get-up techniques and large size .of newspaper pages in Urdu journalism. When Zameendar was banned for one year in 1953 due to Tehrik-e-Khatam-e-Nabuvat the circulation .of the Imrooz increased. Due to bad economic conditions Imrooz was closed an '26th November, 1991.

The Mashriq revolutionized Urdu journalism in Pakistan. Inayet Ullah started it on the 16th of September, 1963 from Lahore. It consisted of twelve pages. As it was a new newspaper, it was not burdened with advertisement. Hence it offered double reading material than its contemporaries. It gave attention to every walk .of life and reserved one full page for women. Soon it captured the Lahore newspaper market by its modernism. Ayub regime took it over. Now it is published from Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta.

The Pakistan Times - Founded by Mian Iftakhar ud Din "The Pakistan Times" a Lahore based English news paper. Faiz Ahmad Faiz joined as Editor at the age of 37-years as well as the head of the editorial board of its sister publications, Urdu daily Imroze and literary and political weekly Lail-o-Nahar, started in 1957.