Editor | Raza Rumi (since 2021) [1] |
---|---|
Former editors | Najam Sethi (1989–2021) |
Format | Online Print (defunct) |
Founder | Jugnu Mohsin Najam Sethi |
Founded | 1987 |
First issue | May 1989 |
Final issue | 2021 |
Company | Naya Daur Media |
Country | Pakistan |
Based in | Lahore |
Language | English |
Website | thefridaytimes |
The Friday Times (TFT) is a Pakistani English-language online publication based in Lahore, Pakistan. [2] [3]
The Friday Times was first published in May 1989. [4] 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. [5] [3] In 2009, Sethi also won the Golden Pen of Freedom, the annual press freedom prize of the World Association of Newspapers. [6]
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 (called 'declaration' under the relevant Pakistani press law) 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. [4]
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". [7] Her sister, Moni Mohsin, satirizes the country's social elites with another column for the paper, "Diary of a Social Butterfly". [7]
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. [8] 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." [9]
Najam Aziz Sethi is a Pakistani journalist, businessman and cricket administrator. He is the current chief executive officer (CEO) of Mitchell's. Previously, he served as the Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in three different tenures and as a caretaker Federal Minister of Pakistan and Chief Minister of Punjab one time. He is also the founder of The Friday Times and Vanguard Books.
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Mira Sethi is a Pakistani actor and writer. The daughter of journalists and politicians Najam Sethi and Jugnu Mohsin, Sethi attended Lahore Grammar School and Cheltenham Ladies' College. She graduated from Wellesley College 2010 and spent her junior year at the University of Oxford. At Wellesley, she studied English and South Asian studies, and she was the student speaker at her commencement ceremony. Sethi was a Robert L. Bartley fellow and an assistant book editor at The Wall Street Journal for about two years and also contributed political commentary for the newspaper, particularly on the subject of Pakistan. In 2011, Sethi returned to Pakistan to pursue an acting career. Her first role was playing Natasha in the ARY Digital serial drama Silvatein, followed by Mohabat Subh Ka Sitara Hai, which aired on Hum TV.
Ali Aziz Sethi is a Pakistani-American singer, songwriter, composer, and author. Born to journalists and politicians Najam Sethi and Jugnu Mohsin, Sethi rose to prominence with his debut novel, The Wish Maker (2009). Although Sethi received some musical training as a child, he did not begin to formally train in Hindustani classical music until after graduating from college. He trained under the tutelage of Ustad Naseeruddin Saami as well as under noted ghazal and classical singer Farida Khanum.
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