Mahbub Jamal Zahedi, popularly known as M J Zahedi, was a Pakistani journalist and philatelist. During his nearly fifty-year career, he was the editor of the Khaleej Times in Dubai, UAE, as well as the news editor and senior assistant editor of Dawn in Karachi, Pakistan.
Early Life and Education
Mahbub Jamal Zahedi was born in 1929 in Dhaka. He was the son of Mizanur Rahman, the previous East Pakistan census commissioner. Zahedi studied English Literature at Dhaka University.
Personal Life
He married Qamarunissa Begum and had two daughters, Jamila and Selina, as well as a son, Dilawar.
Career
Mahbub Jamal Zahedi worked as a journalist for nearly five decades. He held prominent roles in numerous publications in East and West Pakistan, as well as brief periods in Lagos, Nigeria, Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, and Beijing, China. He was imprisoned multiple times for his left-wing ideas. In East Pakistan, he was also the founder and editor of the prominent Bangladeshi weekly The Agatya.
1950s
Zahedi began his career in journalism in the early 1950s, working for the Pakistan Observer. By the early 1960s, he was working as an assistant editor.
In 1955, he was a Colombo Plan journalism scholar in Australia, where he worked for the Sydney Morning Herald and the Melbourne Gazette.
On October 7, 1958, he was caught late at night near Purana Paltan, Dhaka, while coming home after performing some normal desk work. The arrest was made in response to the publication of a contentious narrative claiming that Iskandar Mirza had overturned Pakistan’s 1956 Constitution.
1960s
Zahedi covered the UN General Assembly Session in 1960. After resigning from the Pakistan Observer, Zahedi relocated to Lahore to work for the Pakistan Times, which was then edited by renowned poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz. He also worked as an adjunct professor at the University of Dhaka from 1960 to 1962 and taught journalism there.
After Pakistan Times was taken over by the National Press Trust, he worked briefly for the Civil and Military Gazette before joining Dawn the next year at the invitation of its editor, Altaf Husain, where he was appointed news editor.
1970-1980s
Zahedi was elected Secretary General of the Pakistan Writers’ Guild in 1970. He also covered the UN investigation into charges of genocide in Nigeria the same year.
He left Dawn in 1974 to help develop the Khaleej Times, the Middle East’s first English daily, where he climbed to become one of its founding editors alongside Mahmoud Haroon. He was the Khaleej Times’ editor for nearly a decade.
1990-2000s
Zahedi returned to Dawn in 1991, this time as an assistant editor. In the mid-1990s, he published both of his philatelic books. Following a stroke in 2001, he retired from journalism.
Philatelist
Zahedi is the author of two publications, one on Pakistani stamps and the other on Gulf stamps. He has contributed to some of the world’s most prominent stamp publications, including Britain’s Gibbons Stamp Monthly and America’s Scott catalogue.
Death
Zahedi died in his bed on December 7, 2008, of natural causes after suffering from prolonged paralysis.
Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani expressed his sympathies to his family following his death. He also praised Zahedi’s tremendous contribution to journalism both within and outside of Pakistan, which he said would be remembered for a long time.
Books
- Zahedi, Mahbub Jamal (1997) Fifty Years of Pakistan Stamps, Sanaa Publications, Karachi, Pakistan.
- Zahedi, Mahbub Jamal (1994) Gulf post: Story of the post in the Gulf, Sanaa Publications, Karachi, Pakistan