Khalid Hasan (15 April 1934 – 5 February 2009) was a Pakistani journalist and writer. Author and editor of several books, in addition to being a regular columnist for a number of English-language Pakistani newspapers, he is best known for his translations of the short stories of Saadat Hasan Manto and the poems of Faiz Ahmed Faiz.[1][2]
Khalid Hasan was born in Srinagar, Kashmir. His father, Noor Hussain, was from Jammu, and worked in the Jammu and Kashmir ministry of health.[1] Khalid Hasan as well as the rest of the family migrated from Jammu to Pakistan during the 1947 communal violence.[3] His two elder brothers (Brigadier General Bashir Ahmed and Saeed Ahmed) served in the Pakistan Army and a younger brother (Masood Hasan) ran an advertising business in Lahore. His sister Surayya was married to K. H. Khurshid who served Muhammad Ali Jinnah as his private secretary, then later became president of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. His second sister, Zohra, resides in Peshawar, Pakistan.[1]
Hasan began his long career in journalism and writing with The Pakistan Times, Lahore as senior reporter and columnist in 1967. He was asked by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on taking office in December 1971 to join him as his first press secretary.[1][4] He went on to spend five years in the country's foreign service, with postings in Paris, Ottawa and London.[1][4] He resigned in protest when the Bhutto government was overthrown by Gen. Zia-ul-Haq and worked in London with the Third WorldFoundation and the Third World Media before leaving to join OPEC News Agency in Vienna, Austria, where he stayed for 10 years.[4][5][6][2]
Khalid Hasan returned to Pakistan briefly in 1991 where he worked as a freelance journalist for the next two years. He moved to Washington, D.C., in 1993 and worked out of there as US correspondent for The Nation (Pakistan) (newspaper), Lahore. From 1997 to 2000 he was in Pakistan as head of the Shalimar Television Network. He returned to Washington in 2000 as special correspondent of the Associated PressofPakistan, which he left to join Daily Times newspaper and The Friday Times newspaper, Lahore in 2002. He continued to work as the correspondent and columnist of these two publications in Washington, D.C. He died on 5 February 2009 in the United States. Hasan was a prolific writer and translator and had published over 40 books, in Pakistan and abroad.[7][1][4][2]
Khalid Hasan died on 5 February 2009, in Washington, D.C., of gallbladder cancer at age 74.[1][4] It was reported, at that time, that he would be buried in Vermont, where his wife Juanita comes from. He and Juanita had two children, a son Jeffrey and a daughter, Jahan, as well as four grandchildren. The family was present in the hospital, when he died.[1]
Ghulam Nabi Fai, Executive Director, Kashmiri American Council, called him a courageous and principled journalist.[4] On his death anniversary in 2011, Radio Pakistan held a seminar and a classical music concert where he was ranked by some people alongside great Pakistani journalists such as Mazhar Ali Khan and I. A. Rehman.[7] A notable Pakistani Urdu-language writer Iftikhar Arif called him one of the best translators of Urdu literature into English.[8]
