Saleem Asmi — a journalist and a lover of art and music
Saleem Asmi
Saleem Asmi, who died here on Saturday, was a man of a very pronounced character - impulsive, defiant, dissenting and outspoken. He was not a bohemian but a born rebel never at ease with the status quo, be it in politics, art or literature. Though he let most of his professional life be consumed by "the drudgery of making all kinds of copy intelligible to the reader," he managed to keep the flame alive, notwithstanding the two bypasses he had.
I came to know Asmi after I joined Dawn in 1995. He was news editor of the paper, a position he continued to hold till he was elevated to the status of editor in March 2000 after the retirement of legendary chief editor, Ahmad Ali Khan. I soon developed a good working relationship with him based on mutual understanding and respect.
With the passage of time, this relationship matured into a friendship despite the difference of age. One reason for this could be that he started his career under the tutelage of my father, Abul Akhyar, at the Times of Karachi in the mid-1950s. (When in lighter moods, which he normally was after his evening sips, Asmi would say: I started my career under the command and control of Akhyar sahib.)
Asmi was born on November 29, 1934, at Jhansi but spent his formative years in Delhi. After Partition, his father migrated to Pakistan and settled in Hyderabad where Asmi completed his school education. Later, the family moved to Karachi and Asmi did his Masters in English literature from the University of Karachi.
While still at college, Asmi developed a passion for students' politics. He was a close confidant of Dr Mohammad Sarwar, the man who played a pioneering role in organising the students' movement in the 1950s which later gave birth to leftist students' organisations - the Democratic Students Federation (DSF) and the National Students Federation (NSF) - and the Pakistan Medical Association.
When DSF was banned after the bloody students' protests in 1953, it was at Asmi's residence that the young activists had regular secret meetings to keep their movement alive.
Throughout his life, Asmi remained a committed Marxist ever ready to fight for what he thought was the right cause. It is not known under whose influence he was attracted to Marxism but he never became a member of the Communist Party.
It was, however, under the influence and patronage of renowned critic Muhammad Hasan Askari that he developed a taste for literature, both Urdu and English. Classical Indian music and the fine arts were the two other fields he had a passion for.
After completing his Masters, Asmi joined the Times of Karachi as a trainee sub-editor. From there, he moved to Pakistan Times and rose to the position of city editor. In 1979, he became part of the launching team of Islamabad's first English daily, The Muslim.
But in came in Ziaul Haq and a defiant Asmi was sentenced to imprisonment by a military court. Later, he moved to Dubai as news editor of the Khaleej Times. In 1988, he came back to Pakistan and joined Dawn.
Gifted with artistic acumen, he displayed his creative potential as he visualised, designed and planned the layout for The Muslim and the Khaleej Times.
Once at Dawn, he brought in many changes to the paper and conceptualised auxiliary publications including Gallery, Books and Authors besides the Metropolitan section.
Years before he opted for English journalism, Asmi started writing Urdu short stories, with some published in contemporary magazines (an English translation of one is included in a compilation published from Washington in 1991 under the title The Tale of Old Fisherman: Contemporary Urdu Short Stories).
In 1956, when Hasan Musanna Nadvi launched his literary magazine, Mehr-e-Neemroz, to expose the plagiarised writings of some big Urdu writers, Asmi was one of the Adabi Jasoos (literary detectives) who contributed to expose the plagiarism of some authors.
How and under what circumstances he ‘ceased’ to be Dawn’s editor is still a well-guarded secret. He was unceremoniously moved out in 2003. Ahmad Ali Khan had to be brought back to fill the gap for two years so that Tahir Mirza could take over as the next editor.
An announcement by Pakistan Herald Publications Limited, the publishers of the Dawn, said: “We are delighted to welcome Mr Khan back to Dawn. He has not only been a major figure in the newspaper’s development since its early days in Delhi; he has played a pivotal role in making Dawn one of the most respected dailies in South Asia.
“The outgoing Editor, Mr Asmi, will be based in London and will be entrusted with the critical task of satisfying the news requirements of the paper’s potential readership in Britain and Europe.” An assignment that never saw the light of the day, or was never meant to be?
Asmi, carefree as he was, never kept a record of his writings. Credit goes to his close friend, SM Shahid, who managed to compile a selection of his writings under the title: Saleem Asmi - Interviews, Article, Reviews. The book, which was published in 2012, contains some remarkable pieces including interviews-cum-sketches of Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Roshan Ara Begum, Madam Azurie and Ustad Muhammad Sharif.
This obituary was written by late veteran journalist, former Dawn city editor and The Express Tribune staff member Abul Hasanat, prior to his death last year. It is now being published posthumously.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 1st, 2020.