HAMEED NIZAMI

Hameed Nizami was born in Sangla Hill (Sheikhupura) on January 3, 1915. He left his home town in 1932 to study at Islamia College, Lahore. After graduation he moved to Forman Christian College, Lahore for his M.A. in English.

While in Islamia College he edited the College magazine "Crescent" with the additional honour of being the Deputy Editor of "Sarbaan", a political and literary monthly.

He was the founder President of the 'Muslim Students Federation' in 1937. This student body played a pivotal role in galvanizing the Muslim Youth under the banner of Muslim League.

It was immediately after the adoption of the 'Pakistan Resolution' that under the instructions of the Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah Hameed Nizami started the fortnightly "Nawa-e-Waqt" on March 27 , 1940 from Lahore. In November, 1941 it was converted into a weekly and in July 1944 into a daily newspaper. On all these three occasions, the Quaid felicitated Hameed Nizami for his endeavours. Indeed the very idea of the Nawa-e-Waqt was to plead the Pakistan cause. Despite being a spokesman of the Muslim League, the Nawa-e-Waqt was neither a party paper nor did Hameed Nizami desired it to 00 so.

Hameed Nizami belonged to a breed of Journalists who had started their career as activists in the Freedom Movement.

Until his untimely death on February 25, 1962 at the young age of 46, he conducted the policy of his Paper in letter and spirit of Hadith which still appears on the editorial page of the 'Nawa-e-Waqt'.

"REAL JIHAD IS TO SPEAK THE TRUTH BEFORE A TYRANNICAL RULER”.

Hameed Nizami's belief in the freedom of the Press was absolutely unassailable. According to him "a dishonest and sycophant Press can do no service to the country or the government in power. On the contrary an opposition or critical Press cannot do even one-tenth of the damage that a sycophant Press can do to a government. The sycophant Press keeps the leadership unaware of the sentiments of the people and the real happenings in the country. By doing this it creates a false sense of security amongst the ruling elite which unintentionally starts thinking that the populace is very happy with their policies". (Excerpts from an editorial of Nawa-e-Waqt..

One of the most distinguished aspects of Hameed Nizami's bent of mind was that he considered journalism to be full-time, all-embracing profession. Once he became a journalist, he refrained from active politics. He was a prolific speaker. He considered his newspaper to be better vehicle to serve the cause of Pakistan than going into active politics.

Another important aspect of Hameed Nizam .s policy bias for the Nawa-e-Waqt was his total rejection of those who had opposed the creation of Pakistan.