Dawn pays glowing tributes to Khan Sahib
KARACHI- Dawn paid glowing tributes to Ahmed Ali Khan, its out-going Chief Editor at a number of functions arranged during the week by its workers, staff and the management. The farewell functions were rounded off by a gala dinner hosted in Khan Sahib’s honour by Mahmood A. Haroon, adviser of the Dawn Group of Newspapers, and its directors.
Those who attended the dinner included senior journalists such as M.A. Zubairi, Editor of Business Recorder; Columnist Sultan Ahmed, Zohra Karim, Editor of the She, Rehana Hakim, Editor of the Newsline, Mahmoodul Aziz, Editor of the UPP, and S. H. Hashmi of the Orient Advertising, Begum Shaista lkramullah, Begum Hasan Ispahani, a number of foreign diplomats and retired civil servants.
The workers of the Group hosted a grand reception at the Muslim Gymkhana where Mahmood Haroon spoke about Khan Sahib’s contributions to developing Dawn into a dynamic institution which, he said, he hoped would outlive many generations to come.
He said Khan Sahib had even taught the Dawn management the very art of managing a newspaper.
Amber Saigol, Director Operations of the Group, expressed her immense admiration for Khan Sahib’s professionalism and his dedication to the newspaper. She said she was looking forward to reading his memoirs, which Khan Sahib planned to write. Khan Sahib on his part attributed the success of Dawn to his team and all those contributors who, he said, together made Dawn the most respected and the most credible newspaper in South Asia.
At a dinner hosted in his honour by the senior staff of Dawn, Khan Sahib gave an insight into the unique relationship that had existed between him and Mahmood Haroon and the instant rapport he had developed with the former chief executive, the late Khawaja Rehman. Khan Sahib gave full credit to Dawn’s senior management for helping him preserve the independence of the newspaper and his own autonomy.
Chief Executive Officer Hameed Haroon narrated a story to illustrate how jealously Khan Sahib guarded his own turf. As a young man of 22 years and having never met Khan Sahib, Hameed invited the Editor of Dawn to his room for an introductory meeting. Hameed said Khan Sahib did not take exception to this extraordinary command but actually walked up to his room. But by the end of that meeting, Hameed said, he had realized what a blunder he had committed without Khan Sahib saying it in so manv words.
The new Editor of Dawn, Saleem Asmi, who has worked as the News Editor of the newspaper for over 12 years under the direct supervision of Khan Sahib, gave out a long list of things he had learnt from Khan Sahib. What he appeared to admire the most in Khan Sahib) was his complete humility which Asmi Sahib found very difficult to emulate, “but without making me realize it, he has helped me smooth out my rough edges.”
Source: Dawn
Date:3/11/2000
” 
” 
” 
” 
