Ayaz Amir

A prominent print and television journalist, columnist, political analyst, and commentator, Ayaz Amir became known for his weekly columns in Daily Dawn. He started writing for Dawn during the government of Ziaul Haq under the pseudonym Watchman. This continued for two years. During the government of late Prime Minister Mohammad Khan Junejo, he started contributing articles in his name.

His association with Dawn ended in 2008 when he decided to contest general elections from Chakwal as a candidate of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. In the winter of 2007 when he was out on his campaign trail Abbas Nasir, the editor of Dawn at that time called him and said they had discussed his position and there was a conflict of interest. He was asked to write a farewell column.

Earlier, Ayaz was a member of the Punjab Assembly in 1997. In April 2023, he joined Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. At the start of his political career, he remained associated with Mairaj Muhammad Khan's Qaumi Mahaz-e-Azadi and the Pakistan People's Party.

Starting his career in the Pakistan Army, he left the institution as captain and for a brief period joined the foreign service. During the 1977 movement against Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, he resigned from foreign service. Afterwards, he wrote columns for Mazhar Ali Khan's weekly Viewpoint. From there he was picked up by Razia Bhatti of The Herald. He wrote regularly for the magazine before joining Dawn as a columnist.

After his stint with Dawn ended, Ayaz started contributing weekly columns for The News. In the meanwhile, he also started hosting TV talk shows. After The News, he started columns in Urdu, which were published in Dunya newspaper. Ayaz said the only thing he ever liked doing was journalism.