Minhaj Barna was a Pakistani veteran journalist and trade union leader. Barna was Minhaj Muhammad Khan’s poetic name.
He was most renowned for his inspired leadership and unwavering fight for press freedom in Pakistan during military dictatorships.
Barna has been described as an “icon of struggle” by Pakistani media.
Early Life and Career:
Minhaj Barna was born in 1923 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, British India to a conservative Rohilkhand Pathan family. His family was from Kaimganj in the Uttar Pradesh district of Farrukhabad, India.
Barna completed his primary schooling at Ahmedabad before moving to Bombay to work as a teacher. After that, he moved to Delhi and enrolled at Jamia Millia University, where he earned his Bachelor’s degree. He also joined the Communist Party of India (CPI) to fight against British rule in India.
Minhaj Barna moved to Pakistan with his family in 1949, where he worked for many newspapers, including the Daily Imroze, Pakistan Times, and The Muslim. He also served as a correspondent for the Associated Press of Pakistan in London, England. It was his last assignment as a journalist.
The majority of his roles included serving as secretary-general and president of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ). he was elected to these seats for the first time in 1969. He was also the founding president of the All-Pakistan Media Employees Confederation (APNEC), which includes the journalist union and combined unions of newspaper organisations.
Minhaj Barna was a significant figure in a historic 10-day countrywide labour strike in 1970. As a result, an act to protect the rights of journalists was incorporated into Pakistan’s 1973 Constitution. Minhaj Barna’s health suffered a setback when, as a trade union leader, he went on the longest hunger strike ever observed by any political party leader or group.
Death
Minhaj Barna died on January 15, 2011 in a private hospital in Islamabad. He had been suffering from a duodenal ulcer in his stomach for a long time and had undergone surgery. He was fighting for his life after the surgery. He was laid to rest in Rawalpindi’s Racecourse Graveyard, Pakistan.
Tributes
According to one prominent Pakistani newspaper, “Barna was a man of commitment and action who remained true to his cause to the very end of his life.” In a tribute to Minhaj Barna, veteran Pakistani journalist I. A. Rehman called him “the battleship of Pakistan’s journalist community.”
Awards
Minhaj Barna was awarded the Tamgha-i-Imtiaz by the Government of Pakistan in 2015 for his contributions to journalism.