One hell of a man

Tall. Handsome. Royal. Fearless. Full of wit. Master creator of headlines. Thoroughly professional subeditor. This was Masudullah Khan, who left us sad this month. I had the pleasure of staying with him for about a week in July 2021 at his house in Allama Iqbal Town, Lahore. His wife was a great host. I was also introduced to his creative daughter and her nice husband. An octogenarian now, but he was still as lively as ever. He remembered the past as if it happened yesterday. He had worked in all major newspapers and the news agency, Pakistan Press International. Masudullah stood for rights whenever they were violated. He had to leave Pakistan Times when the dictator Zia ul Haq started targeting the progressive journalists. He was one of the four journalists who were jailed and sentenced to lashes by a military court. His was a rare example of a citizen challenging the illegality of the summary military court right in front of it. This was by far the worst period for the freedom of press in Pakistan. Disappointed with the deteriorating state of freedom of speech and other fundamental rights, he left the country to work at Kuwait Times. On return, he joined Hussain Naqi’s team that founded The News in Lahore. His last job as journalist was as the news editor of Dawn when it began publishing its Lahore edition.

Masudullah Khan had done his Master’s in English literature. This training showed in his conversations which were full of literary humour. It was also reflected in his reporting. Here is a gem describing Zulfikar Ali Bhtto’s arrival in Lahore in June 1966 after he fell out with dictator Ayub Khan: “When I reached the station, the platforms were almost empty. Then suddenly people started arriving. There were so many people that the station looked like a beehive. You could not see anything other than people.” Great Punjabi writer Shafqat Tanvir Mirza, eminent Urdu writer Munno Bhai and Masoodullah Khan were friends and relatives, fondly known as the Wazirabad rebels.

I first met the rebel from Wazirabad in the fateful period of 1970-71. Press was chained and public intellectuals felt threatened. Personal discussions among close friends ended up in accusations of lack of patriotism, what to speak of public discourse. In these hardest of times, Hussain Naqi, one of our bravest journalists, started publishing a weekly, Punjab Punch. I was waiting for the much delayed results of my Master’s from GC, Lahore and beginning to write here and there. For reasons I still do not know, Naqi Sahib asked, nay, ordered, me to be the editor. The team of contributors included such luminaries as Zafar Iqbal Mirza (ZIM), Masudullah Khan, Khalid Hasan, Khadija Gauhar, Eric Cyprian and Najm Husain Syed. Obviously, there was nothing for me to edit. In fact, I would write my own piece and accept the generous offer of Masoodullah Khan to edit it. And boy, it was like going through a strict test. Guiding youngsters came naturally to him. Forget your economic jargons. Talk to people as they do in the ordinary business of life, he would say, using the most popular definition of economics, my specialisation. Sometime ZIM would add a touch of humour which Masudullah thought was inappropriate when discussing the issues of bread and butter.

Masoodullah had hurt his leg in an accident. The infirmity saved him from being lashed. We would lovingly call him Long John Silver of a different, not Treasure, island. He was one hell of a man. Miss him.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 24^th, 2023.

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