In the light of the above, let us analyse the press ownership in Pakistan. The biggest group of newspapers was run by the National press Trust, a government sponsored and government controlled body. It controled the “Pakistan Times,” of Lahore and Rawalpindi, “Mashriq” of Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta, “Imroze” of Lahore and Multan, “Morning news” of Karachi, “Sports Times”, Lahore and “Akhbar-e-Khawateen”, Karachi of these the “Pakistan Times” helds the monopoly of information for the English -reading public in at least the Punjab and N.W.f.P The circulation of newspaper of the NPT exceeded 200,000 with predominant influence in the Punjab, N.W.F.P. and Baluchistan.

The second big group of newspaper is known as the Pakistan Herald publications Ltd., owned by the industrialist Harron family. It controls “Dawn”, Evening Star”, “Dawn” (Gujrati), Watan (Gujrati), and the Urdu daily “Hurriyet ” of Karachi, This chain virtually monopolies information for the English and Gujrati reading public in Karachi at least. The third group is known as Jang Publications, it controls “Jang” of Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi and Quetta, “Daily News” and “Akhbar-i-Jahan”, and “Mag” of Karachi, This group also owns “Jang International” which appears form London, The “Jang” group holds a virtual monopoly of information for the Urdu- reading public in Sind, Rawalpindi division of the Punjab and to a great extent in Lahore and Quetta. This group of newspapers is owned by Mir Khalil-ur-Rehman and his family members who have financial interest in various business.

The fourth group is Nawa-i-Waqt Publications which publishes Nawa-i-Waqt Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan and Karachi, along with The Nationa, Lahore and Islamabad and Family Magazine. Other newspapers are small businesses but they are generally managed by joint-stock companies or private limited companies and newspapers financed by political parties. The individually owned newspapers are almost extinct as it is no longer possible for an individual to sponsor and run a daily newspaper worth the name.

Thus the old personality journalism that dominated the scene in the pre-independence era is dead, with no hope of resurrection. The new form of personality journalism has appeared in the shape of column-writing. Some columnists are quite popular but none possesses the “Pull” that might result in a substantial rise in circulation of his news paper.

The factors responsible for increase in circulation include good management, good production and good content, coupled with a certain amount of chance. The increase in literacy, expansion of education, growth of industrialisation and urbanization and increase in the purchasing power of the rural population are also important. The newspapers are primarily read in cities, and small towns and of almost all educated or literate families of urban society.

Rural Areas Untouched

To elaborate the point, the following data is worth a careful study:- (in 1986)The NPT own nine dailies with a total circulation of 275,000, “Dan” group consists of five dailies printing 125,000 copies and the Jang group publishes four dailies with a total circulation of 475,000 Besides these 30 dailies, there exist about 40 other regular or irregular and full- fledged or extra-type dailies whose total circulation should not be more than 70,000.

Thus we have 70 dailies with a total circulation of about one million. This shows that the circulation per 1000 inhabitants comes to about 12. (In Britain in 1968 in average of 47.7 copies of newspapers were sold for every 100 people- the second highest figure for readership per head of population in the world).

Newspapers are mainly sold in cities and small towns or the nearby suburbs whose total population should not be more than 20 million. Thus for every 20 persons of urban population, there is one newspaper available, That shows that daily newspapers are within easy reach of all urban literate families.

The rural press exists in the form of weeklies but it is very weak, and 65 per cent of the population of Pakistan lives in the rural areas.