First meeting with Salmaan Taseer

Daily Times
By Iqbal Khattak

At a pre-launch meeting in Lahore in early 2002, the founding editor-in-chief of Daily Times, Najam Sethi, introduced Salmaan Taseer – now no longer among us after he was assassinated in Islamabad on Tuesday – who did not speak much and mostly listened to other participants of the meeting.

His wife, Aamna Taseer, flanked him. She was also totally silent, but occasionally smiled when something jolly was said during the meeting.

As he used to do, the late Taseer smiled every time he spoke. But what came as striking was his different nature from other newspaper employers. He did not give any policy statement except that Daily Times should introduce the ‘real Pakistan’ to the world.

It was Najam Sethi who mostly spoke and the participants shared their views to make the launch a success and have the new newspaper counted among the country’s already established English-language dailies.

I could not talk to the late Taseer directly as the meeting was not yet over when he left with his wife. His departure followed by detailed discussion to make elaborate arrangements for the launch on April 9, 2002. However, his down-to-earth personality impressed all those who met him for the first time that day.

It took years to meet him for the second time, when he was visiting Peshawar in connection with his WorldCall business promotion trip before becoming the Punjab governor in 2008. He extended invitation to all media offices except Daily Times.

A reporter was assigned the task to cover the event. However, when he told me that Salmaan Taseer was himself present on the occasion, I felt it necessary to see him personally.

He was coming out of the main lobby of a five-star hotel in the city when the introduction was made. I asked him why had he not informed Daily Times bureau while letting others know. He responded: “I have no role in the editorial policy of the newspaper. Inviting you might have been seen as interference in editorial policy of the newspaper. I leave it to you to think if this event merits coverage or not.”

There are not many media organisations where the employer does not interfere with the editorial policy. In some cases, they act like editor. For a professional journalist it is next to impossible to work under a non-professional editor. The late Taseer did not have a journalistic background, that’s why he stayed away from professional work of a professional editor.

And that’s what contributed to making Daily Times a reputed national newspaper in a short span of time.

His assassination also brought fears among DT well-wishers raising questions about the future of the newspaper. I received many emails from several parts of the world asking what future holds for the newspaper. The family has decided to keep the newspaper running.

The assassination has brought the blasphemy law under spotlight once again. This law has also haunted journalists and press freedom organisations have considered it an “attack” on the freedom of expression in the country. The Frontier Post colleagues having been booked under the law after a blasphemous letter was published in the newspaper would never forget those moments of “uncertainty”.

“These were terrible moments after police booked us under the blasphemy law,” said some of those arrested on blasphemy charges. Only one of them was handed down life imprisonment. However, he had won his appeal at the Peshawar High Court against his conviction.

Former prime minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain pleaded on Wednesday for “a new law” to stop “misuse” of the present blasphemy law. It seems a Herculean task given the level of intolerance and radicalisation of Pakistani society since early 80s.