DAWN (newspaper)

DAWN is Pakistan's oldest and most widely read English-language newspaper in Pakistan. One of the country's three largest English-language dailies, it is the flagship of the Dawn Group of Newspapers, published by Pakistan Herald Publications, which also owns the Herald, a magazine, Spider, an information technology magazine and Aurora, an advertising, marketing and media magazine.

It was founded by Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah in Delhi, India, on 26 October 1941 as a mouthpiece for the Muslim League. The first issue was printed at Latifi Press on 12 October 1942. The newspaper has offices in Karachi (Sindh), Lahore (Punjab), and the federal capital Islamabad, and representatives abroad.As of 2010, it has a weekday circulation of over 109,000. The CEO of Dawn group is Hameed Haroon, and the current editor of Dawn is Zaffar Abbas.

Early history

Dawn began as a weekly publication, published in New Delhi. Jinnah summed up the paper's purpose when he stated:

Dawn became a daily newspaper in October 1942 under the leadership of its first editor, Pothan Joseph, who later resigned because of the paper's support for the independence of Pakistan in 1947. In 1945 Altaf Husain took over as the publication's editor and brought nationwide and international awareness of its daily circulation. Under the instruction of the owner, Mr. Jinnah, it became the official organ of the Pakistan Muslim League in Delhi, and the sole voice of the Muslims League in the English language, reflecting and espousing the cause of the independence of Pakistan. Altaf Husain, as the journal's editor, galvanised the Muslims of India for independence by his editorials, which earned him ire of the Congress Party and of Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy and Governor General of the British Raj both of whom wanted a united India.