“It will not be easy for our future historians to determine which single action of the self-appointed President (Ayub Khan) and his Government of courtiers did the greatest harm to the national interest, for they will have a wide field to survey. Many will probably conclude that the Dictatorship’s gravest crime was its deliberate destruction of press freedom, because so many other evils flowed from this act of denying to the people of Pakistan one of their fundamental rights.”
(Ayub’s Attack on Progressive Papers: Mazhar Ali Khan, Pakistan Forum Jan 1972)

In a recent article in the Lahore-based Daily Times, I noted that since the takeover, at gunpoint, of Mian Iftikharuddin’s Progressive Papers Limited (PPL) - which included the dailies Pakistan Times, Imroze and the weekly Lail o Nahaar - on April 18, 1959, the Pakistani Left or for that matter any opposition group, has not been able to find or found a viable alternative to the state-controlled propaganda machine.

However, there were sporadic exceptions to this rule and the August 14, 1975 launch of the weekly Viewpoint from Lahore , by Mazhar Ali Khan had ushered in one such era that ended nine months before his death in 1993.

I had an opportunity in my youth, to meet Mazhar sahib, courtesy my uncle Afzal Bokhari who was a regular columnist for the Viewpoint.

It was a rather nippy but bright Lahore morning in December 1987, when we arrived at the Viewpoint offices. At age17, I was still experimenting with various progressive ideas and knew Mazhar sahib as "the father of Tariq Ali’. His younger son Mahir was in Peshawar in those days at the Frontier Post.

I remember walking into what appeared like a farm-shed style room with print-type cases on either side. My recollection of Mazhar sahib walking in is of a smiling man with a graying mustache, in white kurta-shalwar suit. His gait was steady and demeanor very calm and rather soothing.

In fact so soothing that, after the pleasantries and small-talk, I asked the most stupid question that I have probably ever asked. I enquired from Mazhar sahib as to where could one find Tariq Ali’s book “Trotsky for Beginners”. His smile broadened and with a hand on my shoulder, he said “yeh to aap Tariq se hi poocheiN” (this is something you may wish to ask Tariq himself).

Mazhar sahib then took us around the offices and I was pleasantly surprised to see Alys Faiz in the next hallway. During the conversation with her, I once again lobbed a question about “ideological non-issues” i.e. her and Faiz’s early days in Amritsar . . With a smile peculiar of Alys’ thin upper lip, she steered the conversation towards asking about Aziz Siddiqui, who had pioneered the Frontier Post from Peshawar in those days.

Faiz, Mazhar sahib and Aziz Siddiqui, were all at the Pakistan Times (PT) at one point. They were matchless journalists and ideologues - traits, which when combined with the towering personal integrity of each - scared the living daylights out of the Ayub Khan’s military regime.

The regime responded by censoring the newspapers - a policy which latter took many names like the so-called press advice and was legitimized by the fig-leaf of the notorious laws like the Press and Publication Ordinance.

However, such tactics were no match for the prowess of Mazhar Ali Khan’s pen and the power of his convictions. He was the editor of the PT at the time of its takeover by the Ayub regime. The ailing chairman of the PPL, Mian Iftikharuddin was put under house-arrest and the offices sealed after confiscating records and accounting materials.

The junta’s goons led by a general and aided by civil servants like Qudratullah Shahab made an offer to Mazhar Ali Khan to continue as the editor with the assurance that after removing Mian Iftikharuddin as the chairman, status quo ante will be restored. In fact he was promised that the editorial titled “The New Leaf” - written by Qudratullah Shahab announcing that the paper was “under new management” wouldn’t even be published if Mazhar sahib were to continue as the editor.

Mazhar sahib knew the regime’s antics all too well and the long effort it had put into setting the stage up, for the takeover of the largest national newspaper of Pakistan . He responded with a resounding no to any and all offers to continue as a protégé of the martial law. The regime had the audacity to tell him that under the new rules he couldn’t even resign. But not being the one to be cowed down Mazhar sahib called it a day.

There is no doubt that the state takeover of the PPL papers and their subsequent nationalization and formation of the National Press Trust (NPT) were the watershed events that did irreparable damage to the freedom of expression and the people’s right to be informed.

In the years leading up to the creation of Bangladesh , Mazhar sahib remained one of the key leftist ideologues in Pakistan and an inspiration for many in the mainstream parties like the National Awami Party (NAP) and for students becoming increasingly politicized against the repressive military regimes.

After the breakup of Pakistan, Mazhar sahib went to the newly formed Bangladesh in a last ditch effort to work-out some form of a confederation formula with Mujibur Rehman but the mission, supposed to be a low-key effort with the backing of ZA Bhutto, fizzled out when high-profile announcements were made in West Pakistan.

Mazhar sahib also accompanied ZA Bhutto at the Simla talks with Mrs. Indira Gandhi, and according to Dr. Aftab Ahmed writing in Dawn, was able to prevail upon Mrs. Gandhi in not just breaking the ice but convincing her to do business with the first elected leader of Pakistan.

However, the sophisticatedly simple Mazhar sahib is remembered not for mere ideology or the diplomacy stints but for his sober, independent publication - the Viewpoint.

This rather thin journal, with a non-glossy cover that was usually type-set in Times New Roman and printed on newsprint paper, became the flagship of the dissident journalism from the latter years of ZA Bhutto’s government through the dark ages of Zia ul Haq’s Islamic martial law.

It was almost miraculous that a journal which did not receive the newsprint quota from the government or a lifeline of lavish advertising money from its various ministries even survived, let alone become a pioneer in serious public interest journalism.

The simple charisma of Mazhar sahib’s editorship rallied together a group of fearless journalists like Eric Cyprian, IA Rehman, Amin Mughal and Zafar Iqbal Mirza, , who made the Viewpoint an exception to the rule of submissive journalism in Pakistan.

However, it was Mazhar sahib’s personal devotion - in the tradition of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky - to the core principles of serious ideological journalism, which kept the Viewpoint going.

Identifying the right issue for the editorial, opening timely debate on relevant matters, focus on the country and region without missing the global perspective, and above all keeping the opinion out of the news while still upholding the highest ideological values, was what Mazhar sahib was all about.

The Viewpoint is the legacy of the fine human being, an impeccable ideologue and inimitable journalist that Mazhar Ali Khan was. My submission is that we take utmost care in handling this trust.

Dr. Mohammad Taqi

References:

– Ayub’s Attack on Progressive Papers: Mazhar Ali Khan; Pakistan Forum Vol. 2, No 4 (Jan 1972) - Editor Dr. Feroze Ahmed)

– Syed Jaffar: ZAB - Can he be accused for breakup of Pakistan in 1971?