Stop Press: A Life in Journalism (1991 in Urdu, English translation 2008)
is the memoir of renowned Pakistan journalist, Inam Aziz, from 1947 to 1990. It
includes 17 black-and-white photographs and newspaper clippings.
Inam Aziz (1928-1993) calls his memoir Stop Press, which indicates that a story
has arisen when the newspaper is about to go to the printing press and all the
editor can do is to stop the press machines and include any important
information in a small space designated for late news. It also refers to
attempts made ‘to prevent a journalist from expressing an opinion’ – both
interpretations are covered in his personal accounts of the process of
journalism, from story to print.
Aziz became known as ‘Surkhiyoon ka Badshah’ – the King of Headlines. He
was a well-respected print and radio journalist, first in Pakistan, then in
London for BBC radio, and from London he established Millat (Nation), the best-selling Urdu newspaper in Europe.
He begins his book – which he calls a ‘long reportage’ – with the Partition
in 1947 – the creation of Pakistan as a new nation after its separation from
India. He was living in New Delhi, India, when at 18 years of age he met the
Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. Months later
Partition brought about the largest mass movement of people in history, and
Aziz took the harrowing train ride to Karachi.
The meeting with Jinnah, who became the first elected President of
Pakistan, and the Partition, had a lasting impact on Aziz. Jinnah’s first
speech on 11 August 1947 declared that people in the new Pakistan were free and
were to be treated as equals irrespective of religion, caste or sex. Critics of
Jinnah’s speech wanted it stricken from the records and it was forbidden to
publish passages of it during Ziaul Haq’s decade-long regime from 1978-1988. ‘The
words of the Quaid are like a milestone in our life as journalists and as free
people,’ Aziz wrote. But they were not the first experiences with his battle
for free speech.
Aziz writes of his experiences working for local newspapers in Pakistan
from 1947 to 1964, rising to news editor of Jang.
From March 1965 he moved to London to join BBC Radio and the Newsreel program for
five years. In his witty anecdotes he recalls when an interviewee, live on air,
spoke only four words in a scheduled five-minute interview.
In 1974 he started his own Urdu-language newspaper, Millat, from London, with a handful of colleagues in Pakistan. The
seven years are recalled with honesty and humour about the financial challenges
and libel cases. ‘Whereas, on occasion, we showed extreme cowardice in the
publication of news, on other occasions we displayed equally exemplary
journalistic courage. It was only financial vulnerability that forced us to act
in a cowardly manner, but when we felt that the national interest demanded the
publication of a story, we never hesitated to run it’ without caring about the
impact.
He also writes of the several libel cases in the 1970s. ‘Our defiant and
independent editorial and news policy gained the newspaper both fame and following.’
Even though only 16 copies of Millat
went to Pakistan, it was cited for its courage and independence.
In 1977 Aziz travelled back to Pakistan to interview prominent leaders
before an announced election. He details his interviews with General Ziaul Haq,
before he became President in 1978, and with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Prime
Minister of Pakistan (1973-1977) in August 1977, before his arrest in
September, imprisonment, and eventual hanging in April 1979. Aziz also returned
to Pakistan in 1988 to interview Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s daughter, Benazir
Bhutto, who became Pakistan’s first female Prime Minister (1988-1990 and
1993-1996).
The lack in the memoir is that he doesn’t mention the closure of Millat, probably due to ill health. He
omits his personal life, but as the title states, it is about the life in
journalism.
I have lived and worked in Pakistan intermittently since 2002, so I am
familiar with Aziz and his work, and also the country’s politics and
newspapers. For me this was an interesting book that doesn’t embellish the
facts – he tells it as he experienced it.
It is a memoir full of wit, humour, politics, and passion – his
impressions, inspirations, challenges, and changes of fortune. The meeting with
Quaid-i-Azam Jinnah is an amusing tale of serendipity. And the incident with
the bees is one of the funny moments in the memoir. He clarifies rumours and
innuendos, adds detailed pages about specific incidences, and above all, imbues
the text with his passion for journalistic integrity.
Aziz is a master journalist and story-teller, and the translation by his
friend and journalist, Khalid Hasan, is exceptional. This is not a dry account
of the journalistic processes of the time, but a social and political
commentary on a critical time in the nation of Pakistan.
MARTINA NICOLLS is the author of:-
The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends
(2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan
Curse (2009).
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