13 Pakistani newspapers you've probably never heard of

Printed in small numbers and usually distributed to various govt departments, here are some interesting publications

Readers may or may not know that many newspapers in the country are what the local industry calls ‘dummy publications’.

They are printed in very small numbers and are usually distributed to various government departments and are dependent entirely on government advertising. One may ask what kind of business model this is, and the answer to that is why would you bother if you manage to make a profit thanks to government advertising despite the fact no one really reads your newspaper. That said, not every paper is a ‘dummy’ publication – some provide an important local service to their readers by giving them information on local events that the national papers normally wouldn’t cover.

Here are 13 newspapers that you have probably near read:

1. Daily Universal Recorder

We have heard of the Business Recorder but how many have heard of the Daily Universal Recorder? It has a presence on Facebook (where its page has 411 likes) and it says it is printed in Rawalpindi and Islamabad.



 

2. Daily Chand Swat 

It is published from Swat every day and is a member of the CPNE (the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors), according to its masthead.



 

3. The Financial Post

Started off around 20 years ago in pink paper to emulate the venerable Financial Times of London, the Financial Post never really hit it off. At one time, when it began, it had several well-known people associated with it, including S G M Budruddin, who had founded Dawn’s EBR pages. However, it failed to create a niche for itself and died an unheralded death. Even its website is now defunct.



 

4. Daily Shana Bashana

Printed from Gujarat



 

5. Daily Musalmaan 

Published “simultaneously from Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad.”



 

6. Roznama Jazba 

Published from Gujrat in Punjab. A picture of the front page of March 9 shows that it is basically a platform where various ministers and politicians can see their photographs published.



 

7. The Frontier Post 

Founded in 1985 and headquartered in Pakistan, the paper was a nursery for many of Pakistan’s senior English-language journalists, many of whom went on to edit newspapers and magazines. It suffered catastrophically from an incident in 2001 when a mob burnt down its office in Peshawar after the publication of a blasphemous letter to the editor. The newspaper’s management apologised for this but was not able to save the office from being burnt down by a mob. The journalist who published the letter, a sub-editor, was in 2003 sentenced to life in prison under the blasphemy laws.



 

8. Roznama Sultanat 

Published from the city of Gujranwala in Punjab.



 

9. Nawa-e-Tokyo 

An online publication which seems to be catered to Japan’s Pakistani community.



 

10. Daily K2 

As the name would indicate, it’s published every day from Gilgit-Baltistan, Rawalpindi/Islamabad and Karachi (the city has a relatively large population of people who are originally from G-B).



 

11. Roznama Tafteesh 

Published from Lahore every day. Claims to focus on investigative journalism – does anything but that.



 

12. The Chitral Times 

An online publication, but one that is quite informative and gives extensive local news to readers. Also, has a separate gallery of pictures taken by contributors showing current weather conditions in the district.



 

13. Daily Hurriyat

Part of the Dawn group of publications -- was for many years an Urdu paper for serious readers. However, it could not compete with others in a very competitive market and was eventually closed down.