Khalid Hasan (1935-2009)

Khalid Hasan was a senior Pakistani journalist and writer. He was born in Srinagar, Kashmir. He was the brother in law of the first elected president of Azad Jammu & Kashmir K H Khurshid, private secretary to Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.

He began his long career in journalism and writing with The Pakistan Times, Lahore as senior reporter and columnist in 1967.

Hasan was asked by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on taking office in December 1971 to join him as his first press secretary. He went on to spend five years in the country's Foreign Service, with postings in Paris, Ottawa and London.

He resigned in protest when the Bhutto government was overthrown by Gen. Zia-ul-Haq and worked in London with the Third World Foundation and the Third World Media before leaving to join the newly-established OPEC News Agency (OPECNA) in Vienna, Austria, where he stayed for 10 years.

Hasan returned to Pakistan briefly in 1991 where he worked as a freelance journalist for the next two years. He moved to Washington DC in 1993 and worked out of there as US correspondent for The Nation, Lahore.

From 1997 to 2000 he was in Pakistan as head of the Shalimar Television Network. He returned to Washington in 2000 as special correspondent of the Associated Press of Pakistan, which he left to join Daily Times and The Friday Times, Lahore in 2002.

He continued to work as the correspondent and columnist of these two publications in Washington. He died on February 5, 2009 in the United States.

Hasan was a prolific writer and translator. He had published over 40 books, in Pakistan and abroad. – Source: Wikipedia