2. General Ayub Khan
What is Media ?
Media is the collective communication outlets or tools that are used to store and
deliver information or data .It is either associated with communication media, or
the specialized communication businesses such as: print media and the press,
photography, advertising, cinema, broadcasting (radio and television) and
publishing.
The decade of 1960s in Pakistan witnessed modernization under General Ayub
Khan, who passionately believed in the progressive-liberal and modernist version
of Islam. His broad-mindedness and liberalism towards Islam was explicitly
manifested in the official Islamic policy pursued during the first half of his regime
from 1958 to 1965 when he governed the country in an authoritarian manner.
During these years, the modernization program was implemented through public
policies aimed at bringing about a progressive change in the constitutional, legal
and social spheres of the country. It was, however, forced as well as highly
selective and authoritarian in nature. The military regime pushed its modernization
Muhammad Ayub Khan was born on May 14,
1907, in the village of Rehana near Haripur, in
Hazara District. He was the first child of the
second wife of Mir Dad Khan, who was a
Risaldar Major in Hodson’s Horse. According to
Ayub, his father had the greatest influence on his
character, outlook, and attitude towards life. He
was the second President of Pakistan. He was
the first native four-star general and also the
self-appointed and only Field Marshal of
Pakistan Army till date. He became president in
1958 following a bloodless military coup
removing President Iskander Mirza and served
as president till 25 March 1969's resignation
among a political upheaval in East Pakistan.
3. agenda despite opposition and resentment from many sections of the society.
Nonetheless, the second half of the regime 1965-69, which was ‘quasi-
authoritarian in nature’, saw a reversal of his official policy towards Islam, since his
popularity was undermined, and he needed popular support for his regime. The
present article explores the modernization measures undertaken during the regime
of Ayub Khan, and analyzes the shift in the official Islamic policy in the country.
After 11 years of revolution of Pakistan, it was taken over by doctorial government
inspite of democratic government. In the regime of ayub media became restricted.
All news paper owned by different politicians restricted even though many of them
were closed.In other words it is known as “BLACK LAW” till now in the history of
journalism.Newspapers were diminished only to criticize and backup the social
issues and never let the attention of readers towards government policies. The first
step in introducing media laws in the country was done by the then military ruler
Field Martial Ayub Khan who promulgated the Press and Publication Ordinance
(PPO) in 1962. The law empowered the authorities to confiscate newspapers,
close down news providers, and arrest journalists. Using these laws, Ayub Khan
nationalised large parts of the press and took over one of the two largest news
agencies. The other agencies was pushed into severe crisis where and had to
seek financial support from the government. Pakistan Radio and TV, which made
was established in mid-1960’s was also brought under the strict control of the
government. In 1961, Press laws were reformed and all the newspapers strongly
condemned that move and demanded that Ayub government should revise it. So
in 1963, government revised it but still it was without much flexibility. According to
the Press Act of 1823, declaration was submitted to the government official
(Deputy Commissioner) who was not supposed to decline it as it was not
considered a license. Ayub government announced that Deputy Commissioner
had the right to refuse the declaration so for the first time it was treated as a license.
It was a strong check against anti-government newspapers. District Magistrates
started a practice with the support of government to gather secret information
regarding the person who filed the declaration. So it became a common practice
that the applicant was blamed in any charge by the Commissioner and he gave a
verdict against him. This was against the ethics of law that Commissioner was
given the right to blame and also to make a decision. Advertising plays a major
role in profit taking of newspapers and government sector advertisements are very
important for any newspaper. Governments usually use this policy to pressurize
newspapers and governments do not give advertisements to anti-government
newspapers. Ayub government also used this famous tool to manipulate
newspapers. In Pakistan almost all the printing material is imported and import
license is required to import these materials. Ayub government restricted the
quantity of import material for anti-government newspapers to pressurize them and
4. to stop their circulation on a large scale.During 1965 war, radio, television and
newspapers supported government stance and the unrealistic and exaggerated
stance regarding the victory in war was presented to the people. But when
Tashqand agreement was signed in Jan 1966 and people protested against it
because government was declaring it as victory and Tashqand was humiliation in
the eyes of the people. So protests against government started and a student died.
This helped to build a mass movement against the government and ultimately it
ended on the resign of Gen Ayub Khan in March 1969. It was a direct result of a
wrong media policy by hiding facts from the government.Government celebrated
“A decade of development” in 1968 and radio television and newspapers were
used as mouth piece of government. Mass media is a source by which rulers can
well understand what people think and what they want and it plays a role of a
watchdog. They give direct response to government policies because they are
directly affected by that policy. Ayub Khan closed that channel so government
remained blind to public opinion and it resulted in severe hatred against
government policies which ultimately lead to the fall of Ayub Khan. In Ayub’s age
newspapers faced a big challenge because newspapers were habitual of keeping
their focus on politics since 1857 in Indo-Pak. So to maintain the interest of the
readers in the newspapers was a big challenge as martial law government put ban
on all political news. This resulted in an effort on the behalf of newspapers to seek
other topics and they started to publish different supplements like Sports
Supplements, Women Supplement, and Youth Supplement etc. So the focus
shifted to social life. In the mean while ‘Imroz’ hired a woman reporter and started
to publish an article on the problems of women and its title was “Khatoon ki Nazar
Main”. Imroz was the first newspaper to introduce such trends in newspapers. After
the efforts of ‘Imroz’, Mashriq and Kohistan from Lahore started to publish women
Pages. Feature writing also got a new dimension. The features along with the
pictures were printed. Some newspapers got the attention of the public by
publishing film pages and film bulletins. It gave rise to glamorous journalism. It also
created a bad impact on those magazines that were purely film magazines. So
with the variety of film pages in daily newspapers, the purely film based magazines
just disappeared gradually because they lost leadership. The trend also shifted to
weekly and episodically features. These features covered the social and cultural
aspects. The entry of television affected the readership of the newspapers.
Because poets and writers were writing for the newspapers without any financial
gain. Television ended this trend and they were paid for writing anything for the
television. So they stopped writing for the newspapers and gradually the
newspapers lost readership. Periodical journalism also went to decline because all
the newspapers gradually started to publish in different supplements where all the
material for different age group people was present in one single newspaper.
5. Press and Publication Ordinance (PPO)
This ordinance was passed in Field Marshal Ayub Khan’s regime in 1963. This
ordinance contained the harshest of laws curtailing freedom of expression and the
progressive development of the media and leading to the March 1969 relinquishing
of power by President Ayub Khan to General Yahya Khan who imposed martial
law. It was formed and enforced to keep the newspapers under government’s
control. It was a black law completely boycotted by media organizations and
journalists.
In 1963, West Pakistan Press and Publications Ordinance and East Pakistan
Press and Publications Ordinance were introduced by the provincial governments,
the pressure built by these provincial laws resulted into an amendment in PPO but
even after that its harshness remained same.
In 1964, National Press Trust was established and all the PPL papers were given
to this monster. NPT had right to take over any such newspaper, magazine which
is apparently financially not able to run the newspaper or is dangerous to country’s
security.
Progressive papers limited:- Ayub khan targeted PPL at first because of its
worth. It was a organization of press by faiz ahmed faiz and syed sibit hussain who
were heavily penalized by ayub khan because they wrote in favor of democracy
and against dictator ship. It had following publications under PPL
Pakistan times
Amroz
Lael o nahar
It was taken over on April 18 1959 by the government.
National press trust:-
After 5 years of taking position on PPL government introduced NPT under which
amroz, Pakistan times launched again
Associated press of Pakistan:-
After making such decision Ayub government took over APP and came forward
and gave the reason behind it that due to great recession and corruption issues
government has to step forward, but the basic reason behind this took over was to
take control on news agency. News manager of ppl Lahore zameer quraishi was
murdered by unknown person
6. Newspapers Nationalize in General Ayub Khan Era
I. IMROOZ
II. MASHRIQ
III. Pakistan Times
In 1948, Mian Iftikhar-ud-Din started Imrooz from Lahore
which is considered a milestone in Pakistani journalism
its editor was Maulana Chiragh Hassan Hasrat and Faiz
Ahmed Faiz; Mahammad Salwar and Ayub Kirmani
were its main writers. At that time, layouts of
newspapers were not good enough and it was the
Imrooz which introduced the latest get-up techniques
and large size .of newspaper pages in Urdu journalism.
When Zameendar was banned for one year in 1953 due
to Tehrik-e-Khatam-e-Nabuvat the circulation .of the
Imrooz increased. Due to bad economic conditions
Imrooz was closed an '26th November, 1991.
The Mashriq revolutionized Urdu journalism in
Pakistan. Inayet Ullah started it on the 16th of
September, 1963 from Lahore. It consisted of twelve
pages. As it was a new newspaper, it was not
burdened with advertisement. Hence it offered double
reading material than its contemporaries. It gave
attention to every walk .of life and reserved one full
page for women. Soon it captured the Lahore
newspaper market by its modernism. Ayub regime
took it over. Now it is published from Lahore, Karachi,
Peshawar and Quetta.
The Pakistan Times - Founded by Mian Iftakhar ud Din"The Pakistan Times" a Lahore
based English news paper. Faiz Ahmad Faiz joined as Editor at the age of 37-years
as well as the head of the editorial board of its sister publications, Urdu daily Imroze
and literary and political weekly Lail-o-Nahar, started in 1957.
