Change of editor at English paper
One of the country’s oldest newspapers, Dawn, saw a change of editors on Oct 4, with its printline (on the back page) formally changing to reflect the transfer to Zaffar Abbas. This is the fifth editor the newspaper has seen in the past decade, and hence this can be seen as a time of transformation for it given that prior to that period the paper had the same editor for almost 30 years.
Mr Abbas takes over from Abbas Nasir, who himself was appointed as editor in May 2006. Mr Nasir, a former head of the BBC Urdu Service, had taken over from Tahir Mirza, the last of what many thought were the old-style traditional editors of the paper.
Mr Nasir was approached for his comments for this report but declined to respond. He brought in change to the newspaper, particularly as far as salaries were concerned. However, he was also asked to take charge of Dawn News, at that time a fully English news channel, which was struggling. Mr Nasir was seen by many staffers as accessible but at least two rounds of dismissals at the television channel somewhat tainted his staff-friendly reputation.
Under Mr Nasir’s stewardship, changes were brought to the newspaper’s website, www.dawn.com, for which a separate staff and editor were hired. However, there were allegations of favouritism given that the editor, Musaddiq Sanwal, did not have editorial experience prior to this in
A staffer who has been working at the paper since 1987 said – he didn’t want to be quoted by name, for obvious reasons – this of Mr Nasir’s tenure: “The man perhaps had too much to do – he started off well by significantly raising staff salaries, but then got bogged down in the Dawn News fiasco, and then over time it seems that the inertia of the organisation overtook the editor and prevented him from doing all the things that we all thought he would do.”
Another staff member, who joined the organisation after Mr Nasir, said: “To his (Abbas’s) credit, he was accessible and encouraging, especially of the lower staff, and he did manage to get some of the deadwood out of the organisation by not renewing contracts of staffers who had reached retirement age.
Zaffar Abbas, the new editor, has previously worked at the monthly news magazine Herald and the BBC. In August 2006, he joined Dawn as resident editor of its
Aamer Ahmed Khan, former editor of Herald, and currently the head of the BBC Urdu Service in
Another former colleague of Mr Abbas – he was editor of Herald and both him and Mr Abbas worked there at least for around 10 years – is the current editor of The News, Karachi, Talat Aslam. Mr Aslam said: “I have always found Zaffar a solid, reliable and dependable individual and it was very good to have him at the magazine. His feet are firmly on the ground and he would always give us very useful and realistic feedback and assessment. During my time at Herald, I saw Zaffar evolve and grow – though as a person, of course, he never changed. I think he will make a very good editor at Dawn – and it will be good to have a good friend as editor of a rival newspaper.”
Muhammad Ziauddin, Executive Editor of The Express Tribune, said: “I have been watching Zaffar’s career since the early 1980s – since he began at the Star. During his days with Herald in
· So another change at the daily Yawn. I thought Abbas Nasir would bring the newspaper up-to-date but he didn’t. As for the arrogance of the new editorial staff, I second Ayesha Siddiqa’s views.
Let us hope Zaffar Abbas – a talented and experienced journalist – is finally allowed to make the necessary changes by the increasingly ‘sethia’-minded owners.
· Zafar does bring a lot of expertise on the table. It would be beneficial for not only for the Dawn but for the industry as well.
Saad Durrani
· Quality of programming at Dawn News is terrible now. It’s like a wannabe Geo-tv now.
Ammar
· Zafar Abbas – isn’t he the brother of Maj. Gen Athar Abbas? Wonder what that means for the paper. Also, wonder if Zafar Abbas’s professionalism will mean that the agents of the intelligence agencies will not get printed on Dawn newspaper’s front page
Sufi Shams
· Abbas Nasir has the honor of contributing to Dawn’s decay. He and his team were responsible for raising a young, cocky and extremely arrogant editorial team which has no sense of respect and lack knowledge. This is what happens when owners begin to temper with the editorial. Dawn moved from Altaf Hussain to Ahmed Ali Khan, and back to the days of Altaf Hussain!
Ayesha Siddiqa
· I hope the new Editor puts some life into the paper. Over the years I find it to have become dull and on the verge of downright boring.
Meekal Ahmed
· Omar R Quraishi sb, for me the best days of Dawn were when you were editor of a section of the paper to which I regularly contributed for sometime. I feel you really encouraged and included articles from a wide range of people, belonging to all parts of the country and with diverse backgrounds, completely on the basis of merit and without any favouritism. I don’t feel the same kind of openness, diversity, merit and ‘depth’ in terms of the quality of the material printed on that section of the paper anymore since you departed. I don’t see much ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking or creativity on that page of my interest for a long time now. I wish Dawn regain that glory again in terms of the quality of stuff in its various sections especially its Sunday edition and its section such as EDUCATION, MAGAZINE and Books and Authors. Dawn (when you were there) has played a vital role in the development of my career and in broadening my mental horizens. I owe a lot to this prestigious newspaper and I wish it becomes more open and responsive to the common readers (and contributers) in terms of representing their views on its pages.
· I wish Abbas Nasir good luck and hope that Zafar Abbas comes up to the expectations of Dawn readers, who still have not forgotten icons like A.A.
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