The Friday Times
The Friday Times (TFT) is a Pakistani English-language independent newsweekly, based in Lahore, Pakistan.[1][2]
 | |
| Editor | Najam Sethi (1989– ) |
|---|---|
| Format | Print as well as online |
| Founder | Jugnu Mohsin Najam Sethi |
| Founded | 1987 |
| First issue | May 1989 |
| Country | Pakistan |
| Based in | Lahore |
| Language | English |
| Website | thefridaytimes |
History and profile
The Friday Times was first published in May 1989.[3] TFT's founder-editor Najam Sethi and publisher Jugnu Mohsin, a husband-and-wife team, are recipients of international awards conferred by Amnesty International and the Committee to Protect Journalists.[4][2] In 2009, Sethi also won the Golden Pen of Freedom, the annual press freedom prize of the World Association of Newspapers.[5]
According to Sethi, he first conceived of the idea for an independent Pakistani newspaper out of frustration: while briefly imprisoned in 1984 on trumped-up copyright charges, no newspapers had protested his arrest. The following year, he and Mohsin applied for a publishing license under Mohsin's name, since Sethi was "too notorious an offender" to be approved. Called into Nawaz Sharif's office to discuss the application, Mohsin told him that she intended to publish "a social chit chat thing, you know, with lots of pictures of parties and weddings". It was finally approved in 1987, but Mohsin requested a one-year delay to avoid the first issue coming out during the dictatorship of General Zia ul Haq. The paper's first issue appeared in May 1989.[3]
During the rule of President Pervez Musharraf, Mohsin wrote a monthly humor column titled "Mush and Bush" featuring fictional conversations between the president and US President George W. Bush. She had previously targeted Prime Minister Sharif with a column for his "dim and authoritarian personality, his intolerance of dissent".[6] Her sister, Moni Mohsin, satirizes the country's social elites with another column for the paper, "Diary of a Social Butterfly".[6]
Mohsin advocates a liberal Pakistan and opposes religious fundamentalism. In January 2006, she argued for the right of women to participate in a marathon wearing shorts instead the salwar kameez.[7] She later became a major critic of the former cricketer Imran Khan's entry into politics, stating that he "doesn't really have a firm grip on history, or politics, or economy ... He would be very easily led and misled."[8]
References
- The Friday Times (weekly newspaper) listed as Member Publication on All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) website Retrieved 28 September 2020
- "1999 Awards – Announcement". The Committee to Protect Journalists. 1999. Archived from the original on 3 September 2012. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
- Najam Sethi. "The good ol' bad days". The Friday Times. Archived from the original on 22 September 2012. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
- "CPJ Disturbed by the Persecution of Najam Sethi in Pakistan". The Committee to Protect Journalists. 23 June 1999. Archived from the original on 4 September 2012. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
- "Pakistani Editor Awarded 2009 Golden Pen of Freedom". World Association of Newspapers website. Archived from the original on 13 May 2013. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
- Emily Wax (28 November 2007). "How Pakistan's Satirists Poke Fun, Politically". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 11 June 2014. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
- "Pak women run to shake off their country's Taliban past". Hindustan Times. 30 January 2006. Archived from the original on 11 June 2014. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
- Mike Giglio (18 April 2012). "King Khan". Newsweek.