Najam Sethi

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Najam Aziz Sethi
نجم عزیز سیٹھی
Chief Minister of Punjab
In office
27 March 2013 – 6 June 2013
Preceded byShehbaz Sharif
Succeeded byShehbaz Sharif
Chairman of Mitchell's
In office
2020 – 10 November 2022[1]
Preceded byS.M. Mohsin
Succeeded byShahzad Ghaffar
CEO of Mitchell's
Assumed office
10 November 2022[2][3]
Preceded byNaila Bhatti
Personal details
Born
Najam Abdul Aziz Sethi

(1948-05-20) 20 May 1948 (age 75)
Kasur, West Punjab, Pakistan
(present-day Punjab, Pakistan)
Spouse
Golden Pen of Freedom Award (2009)
Hilal-i-Imtiaz Award in 2011[4]
Websitewww.najamsethi.com

Najam Aziz Sethi (

Chief Minister of Punjab
.

As a journalist, he is a

chief minister of Punjab during the 2013 election. He formerly used to host primetime current affairs show Aapas ki Baat on Geo News.[6] He is currently the President of AAP Media Media Network / Indus News.[7]

Najam Sethi began his sociopolitical endeavours with the socialist movement working for the rights of Balochistan, leading to his arrest in 1975 before being discharged in 1978. He consequently left politics and established Vanguard Books, a progressive book publishing company.[6]

In 1989, Sethi along with his wife

Daily Times of Pakistan and became its editor until leaving in October 2009. He also served as the Pakistan correspondent of The Economist from 1990 to 2008.[6]

Sethi won the 1999 International Press Freedom Award of the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists and the 2009 World Association of Newspapers' Golden Pen of Freedom Award. On 26 March 2013, his name was approved for the interim position of the chief minister of Punjab as a result of consensus between members of the selection committee comprising individuals from both the governing and the opposing political parties.[8] He took the oath on 27 March 2013, and left the office after the May 2013 elections on 6 June 2013.[9]

Career

According to Sethi, he first conceived of the idea for an independent Pakistani newspaper out of frustration: while briefly imprisoned in 1984 on trumped-up copyright charges, no newspapers had protested his arrest. The following year, he and

General Zia ul Haq. The paper's first issue appeared in May 1989.[10]

1999 arrest

In early 1999, Sethi gave an interview to a team for the

Nawaz Sharif government.[11] At the beginning of May, he was warned by contacts that his co-operation with the team was being interpreted by the Nawaz Sharif government as an attempt to destabilize it and that officials were planning Sethi's arrest.[11] On 8 May, he was taken from his home by personnel of Punjab Police.[12] According to Sethi's wife Mohsin, at least eight armed officers broke into the house, assaulting the family's security guards; when asked to produce a warrant, one of them threatened simply to shoot Sethi on the spot. Mohsin was tied up and left locked in another room.[11]

Sethi was then held for almost a month without charge. He was kept incommunicado at a detention center in Lahore.[13] Amnesty International stated its belief that his arrest was connected with his investigations into government corruption, and designated him a prisoner of conscience.[14] The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists also sent a protest letter to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, noting the organisation's dismay "that the state continues its persecution of independent journalists",[13] and World Bank president James Wolfensohn called Sharif to urge Sethi's release.

On 1 June, authorities charged Sethi with "Condemnation of the Creation of the State and Advocacy of Abolition of its Sovereignty" and "Promoting Enmity Between Different Groups" and transferred him to police custody. However, the following day, the Supreme Court of Pakistan ruled that the government had provided insufficient evidence to justify Sethi's detention. He was released, and the charges against him were dropped.[13]

My Feudal Lord

In June 1991, Mohsin and Sethi's publishing company,

Mustafa Khar. In the book, Durrani alleges that Khar mistreated and abused her. It was an "instant sensation" and later became the "hottest book in Pakistan's history". Durrani signed a contract vesting foreign rights with Mohsin and giving her 50% of foreign royalties.[15]

On 19 May 1999, however—during Sethi's one-month incommunicado detention—Durrani called a press conference to denounce him as having stolen all of her earnings from the book, stating that his actions were "an even bigger case of hypocrisy than my experience with the feudal system". Durrani sued Sethi for mental torture, and he countersued for defamation. An earlier dispute over the foreign rights had been settled out of court in 1992. A review of the contracts by the UK newspaper The Independent described Sethi as acting in good faith and described him and Mohsin as "the injured party".[15]

In 2008, when Sethi's newspapers ran a series of editorials opposing

Abdul Aziz Ghazi was a cleric; the mosque had kidnapped six Chinese women that it accused of being prostitutes, leading to Ghazi's arrest.[18][19]

Caretaker Chief Minister of Punjab

Najam Sethi was appointed as the caretaker

PPP, and the governing party, PML(N) agreed on it. He was then chosen to be the caretaker Chief Minister.[20][21][22] On 6 June 2013, he was replaced by the newly elected leader Shehbaz Sharif.[23] PTI, the party that lost the 2013 elections, had accused Najam Sethi of fixing the elections in 35 constituencies and famously called them the 35 punctures.[24]

Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board

First term

Nawaz Sharif, the Prime minister at the time, appointed him as the acting chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board after the Islamabad High Court ordered the appointment of an interim chairman until a pending case on the serving chairman, Zaka Ashraf, was decided. Later, a two-member bench of Islamabad high court cleared Zaka Ashraf and ordered his restoration as chairman PCB. Sethi then relinquished chairmanship.[25]

Second term

In August 2017, Sethi was elected unanimously as PCB chairman for a second time after no other member of the Board of Governors stood for the position.

ICC President Ehsan Mani would succeed Sethi.[28]

Third term

After Imran Khan was ousted from government through a vote of no confidence in April 2022, Sethi was appointed the Chairman of the PCB Management Committee for a third term in December 2022, along with 13 board members by the new prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif.[29] They were given the task to restore the PCB's 2014 constitution, whilst scrapping the 2019 constitution set under Ehsan Mani, within four months. However in April 2023, the Management Committee was given a further two-month extension.[30] On 20 June 2023, Najam Sethi made an announcement via twitter expressing his unwillingness to continue pursuing the Chairmanship during his third term as Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). Citing concerns over potential instability and uncertainty, Sethi decided not to be considered as a candidate for the position.[31] He was succeeded by Zaka Ashraf as the 37th Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board on 5 July 2023.[32]

Personal life

Sethi is married to fellow journalist Jugnu Mohsin, the publisher of The Friday Times. Najam Sethi's daughter is a journalist and actress Mira Sethi.[5][33]

Awards and recognition

In 1999, Sethi and Mohsin were both given the

World Association of Newspapers.[17][13] Hilal-i-Imtiaz Award in 2011 by the President of Pakistan.[4]

References

  1. ^ Khan, Muhammad Raafay (13 November 2022). "Najam Sethi has resigned as chairman of Mitchell's. What next?". Profit by Pakistan Today. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  2. ^ Khan, Muhammad Raafay (18 November 2022). "Turn around has begun, says Mitchell's CEO Najam Sethi". Profit by Pakistan Today. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  3. ^ Staff, ProPK (10 November 2022). "Najam Sethi Appointed As Interim CEO Mitchell's Fruits Farm". Propakistani. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  4. ^ a b "Seven MPs decline to receive Pakistan Day awards". DAWN.COM. 23 March 2011. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  5. ^ a b c "Biography". najamsethi.com. Archived from the original on 2 July 2012. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  6. ^ a b c Paracha, Nadeem F. (19 June 2014). "Najam Sethi: Chirping away facts". Dawn (newspaper). Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  7. ^ "Najam Sethi returns to news media, joins Aap News as president". Daily Pakistan (newspaper). 11 September 2018. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  8. ^ "Punjab interim CM: Najam Sethi's name approved". The Express Tribune (newspaper). 26 March 2013. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  9. ^ "Sethi selects five-member Punjab cabinet". The News International (newspaper). 1 April 2013. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  10. ^ "The good ol' bad days". The Friday Times (newspaper). Archived from the original on 22 September 2012. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  11. ^ a b c Ann K. Cooper (10 May 1999). "Veteran Journalist Najam Sethi Arrested". Committee to Protect Journalists website. Archived from the original on 10 December 2019. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  12. ^ "1999 Awards – Announcement". The Committee to Protect Journalists website. 1999. Archived from the original on 3 September 2012. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  13. ^ a b c d e "1999 Awards – Announcement – International Press Freedom Awards". The Committee to Protect Journalists website. 1999. Archived from the original on 3 September 2012. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  14. ^ "Further information on UA 107/99 (ASA 33/11/99, 14 May 1999) and follow-up (ASA 33/13/99, 21 May 1999) – Prisoner of conscience/fear of torture". Amnesty International. 3 June 1999. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  15. ^ a b Peter Popham (20 July 1999). "My feudal lords Amnesty honoured him with its Journalism Under Threat award, but in Pakistan Najam Sethi is still persecuted". The Independent. Archived from the original on 23 May 2013. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  16. ^ Philip Reeves (12 December 2008). "Taliban Angered By Pakistani Journalist's Writings". National Public Radio (US website). Archived from the original on 9 July 2013. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  17. ^ a b "Pakistani Editor Awarded 2009 Golden Pen of Freedom". World Association of Newspapers. Archived from the original on 13 May 2013. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  18. ^ "Red mist (Red Mosque upheaval)". The Economist. 26 July 2008. Archived from the original on 23 May 2013. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  19. ^ "Najam Sethi receives death threat from Pak militants for publishing cartoon". Hindustan Times. 26 July 2008. Archived from the original on 23 May 2013. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  20. ISSN 0971-751X
    . Retrieved 25 December 2022.
  21. ^ "Punjab interim CM: Najam Sethi's name approved". The Express Tribune. 26 March 2013. Retrieved 25 December 2022.
  22. ^ "Najam Sethi takes oath as caretaker Punjab CM". Dawn (newspaper). 27 March 2013. Archived from the original on 28 March 2013. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  23. ^ "Shahbaz Sharif to take oath as Punjab CM on June 6: Najam Sethi". The Express Tribune (newspaper). 26 May 2013. Archived from the original on 8 June 2013. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  24. ^ Khawar Ghumman (17 February 2014). "The story Of '35 punctures'". Dawn (newspaper). Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  25. ^ "Najam Sethi appointed acting PCB chairman". Dawn (newspaper). Associated Press of Pakistan. 23 June 2013. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  26. ^ "Najam Sethi elected new PCB chairman". The Indian Express. 9 August 2017. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  27. ^ "PCB chairman Najam Sethi resigns". AP NEWS. 20 August 2018. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  28. ^ "Najam Sethi quits as PCB chairman, Ehsan Mani set to replace him". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  29. ^ Abbasi, Kashif (22 December 2022). "PM forms Sethi-led interim body to run PCB affairs; elections within four months". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
  30. ^ "PCB's interim management committee gets extension".
  31. ^ "Najam Sethi pulls out of PCB race". The Newspaper's Sports Reporter. Dawn News.
  32. ^ "Zaka Ashraf appointed chairman of new PCB management committee". www.geo.tv. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  33. ^ "A Princess Of Our Times (Profile of his wife Jugnu Mohsin)". Financial Express (newspaper). 29 August 2004. Retrieved 29 July 2020.

External links

Political offices

Chief Minister of Punjab

Preceded by Caretaker
27 March 2013 – 6 June 2013 		Succeeded by
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Najam_Sethi&oldid=1219694329"