JournalismPakistan.com
July 06, 2021

LAHORE—Veteran journalist, short story writer, and progressive intellectual Masood Ashar has passed away in Lahore. He was 90.

Prominent journalist Hamid Mir, in his tweet, said that “Masood Ashar passed away on 5th July the day a dictatorship was imposed on Pakistan in 1977. He lost his job in 1983 just because he signed a demand to restore democracy in Pakistan. Salute to Masood Ashar.”

Dawn reported that Masood Ashar’s real name was Masood Ahmed Khan. He was born on February 10, 1931, in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, in united India. He got his early education from the Madrasa-i-Aliya of Rampur. He did his matriculation from Allahabad board around 1948 and graduated from Agra. He migrated to Pakistan in 1951.

From his early days, he was fond of journalism. He worked with various newspapers such as Ehsan, Zamindar, and Aasaar till 1954 before joining Urdu daily Imroz as senior sub-editor. Poet and short story writer Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi was the editor of Imroz then.

In 1958, Ashar became the resident editor of Imroz, Multan. During Gen Zia’s dictatorial regime, firing was opened on the workers of Colony Textile Mills, and Masood Ashar published news. As a punishment, he was transferred from Multan to Lahore. In 1983, he was sacked when he signed a demand for revival of democracy in the country.

In 1988, during the government of Benazir Bhutto, he was reinstated, and retired from the newspaper when he was its editor. In 1992, he got associated with a publishing house called Mashal.

He is survived by two sons and two daughters. His wife passed away last year.