History of Newspapers in Pakistan

 In Urdu, news means giving information, conveying something to the people or informing the people about a matter of which they do not know in advance. In Arabic, the newspaper is called Khabar. By newspaper we usually refer to informational journals or published material that covers the important news of the previous day. The age or validity of a newspaper is not more than twenty four hours, ie once a newspaper is printed, it is valid till the next day. After that the newspaper gets old and new news is published in the next day's newspaper. In ancient times newspapers were not published in the way they are published today. In earlier times important and necessary informative articles were published weekly or monthly only for princes and ministers who were handwritten. The general public did not have access to these writings. The history of newspapers is dated to about 700 BC. The modern newspaper is a Western invention. In 1566, the first newspapers in the European country of Venice were published weekly in 1566, with news on peace, war and politics. The first regular newspaper was published weekly in 1609 in Augsburg, Germany. The modern newspaper is 300 years old which has developed a lot after the invention of printing machines and started publishing on a daily basis which continues to this day.

The history of newspapers in Pakistan begins with United British India before the formation of Pakistan. Although it was not a separate country at that time, different people started spreading their views through newspapers. In these ideologies, the ideology of formation of 

Pakistan had become an important topic and objective of almost every newspaper. Newspapers in the subcontinent began in 1780 with the publication of the Bengal Gazette. The newspaper was founded by an Englishman named James Augustus. In addition, another newspaper was published in 1822 under the name of "Jam Jahannama" which was considered as an Urdu newspaper, although it was not in purely Urdu language because at that time Urdu as well as Persian language was used in newspapers. The first regular Urdu language newspaper was published in 1836 under the name "Urdu Akhbar" which was purely in Urdu language. The editor of this newspaper was Maulvi Muhammad Bakr who was from Delhi. He was executed by the British Crown for publishing anti-government material. After the treason, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan started publishing "Risala Tehzeeb-ul-Akhlaq" in 1870 to bridge the gap between the Muslims and the British. After the formation of the Muslim League in 1906, when Muslims became politically strong, newspapers were published in many languages, including English, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Sindhi. Popular newspapers of the time included "Comrade" Hamdard and the daily Zamindar. The latter was Maulana Zafar Ali Khan's Urdu newspaper. These newspapers played an active role in the establishment of Pakistan. English newspapers were also published during this period, including The Star of India, Morning News of Calcutta, Eastern Times of Lahore. The Dawn newspaper, which had been published weekly since 1930, was founded in 1942 by Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. 

The newspaper Nawa-e-Waqt was published in 1940 by some of the leading Muslim leaders of the time who were among the strongest and leading supporters of the separate country. The daily Jang is also one of the newspapers of Pakistan which has been published even before its establishment. It was first published from Karachi in 1939. The daily "Imrooz" has been published even before Pakistan. After independence, this daily started publishing from Lahore. Many important journalists like Maqbool Jahangir, Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, Intezar Hussain and Shafqat Tanveer were considered the pioneers of this newspaper from 1950s to 1970s. This newspaper has also been published online since 2016. At the time of establishment in 1947, apart from these newspapers, only a few were published. In some parts of the country, not even a single newspaper was published. No newspaper was published from East Pakistan and Balochistan. Two newspapers were published from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which included Azad and Marang News while the latter was later shifted to Dhaka. 

Newspapers published after the formation of Pakistan included "Dawn, Pakistan Times, Civil and Military Gazette, Imrooz, Nawa-e-Waqt, Khyber Mail, Jang, etc." The newspaper Jang founded Geo News, Business Recorder founded Aaj News and Roznama Express founded Express News. Many Urdu, English and other language newspapers are being published in the country today. English newspapers Dawn and Express Tribune While Urdu newspapers like Jang, Express, Daily Dunya, Nawa-e-Waqt and Ummah are very popular among the Urdu newspapers. Today, the number of newspapers and magazines published in the country is around 1500. According to Saif Khattak "While Pakistani media is promoting truth and public opinion, there are many negative aspects involved in it." A large number of students studying in the Department of Mass Communication of Karachi University reported to the newspapers. Like the Annals, it is a tool of the capitalist class. Despite all this, Pakistani newspapers are selling in large numbers