Yusuf Abdullah Haroon | |
|---|---|
| 5th Governor of West Pakistan | |
| In office March 1969 – September 1969 | |
| Preceded by | Muhammad Musa |
| Succeeded by | Malik Nur Khan |
| 3rdChief Minister of Sindh | |
| In office 18 February 1949 – 7 May 1950 | |
| Governors General | Muhammad Ali Jinnah Khawaja Nazimuddin |
| Preceded by | Pir Ilahi Bux |
| Succeeded by | Qazi Fazlullah Ubaidullah |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1916 |
| Died | (aged 95) |
| Political party | Muslim League |
| Spouse | Pasha Haroon |
| Parent |
|
| Relatives | Mahmoud Haroon (brother) |
Muhammad Yusuf Abdullah Haroon (1916 – 12 February 2011) was a Pakistani businessman and politician who served as the 5thGovernor of West Pakistan and 3rdChief Minister of Sindh.[1]
Born in 1916 toAbdullah Haroon, Yusuf worked closely withQuaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah as his personal assistant and was active in thePakistan Movement.[1] He was a witness toAll-India Muslim League's 25th session inAllahabad in 1930.[2]
Yusuf married Pasha Haroon, the niece ofAga Khan III who was the 48th Imam of the Ismaili Shias, in 1937.[3]
Yusuf was active in politics spanning nearly seven decades.
From 10 May 1944 to 8 May 1945, he served as mayor ofpre-independenceKarachi.[2] After independence, he served asChief Minister of Sindh between 1949–50, where he piloted a bill for land reform to abolish large land-holdings. When the bill failed to pass, he resigned from his position as chief minister.[4] In 1969, Haroon served asgovernor of West Pakistan in 1969.[2]
Yusuf also served as afederal minister and as a high commissioner toAustralia. In 1966, he worked briefly as chief editor forDawn, a daily newspaper. After moving to New York, he served as an executive of the now-defunctPan Am Airlines before retiring.[2]
Yusuf Haroon was a founding member ofDawn. In 1946, when Yusuf was in New Delhi to attend a constituent assembly session, Jinnah called him to his residence and asked him to discontinue the newspaperThe Herald, then edited by Desmond Young, and instead start the publication ofDawn in Karachi,Pakistan, the soon-to-be independent nation, even though Dawn’s Delhi edition would continue to be published. Jinnah also asked him and his family to buy all the shares of the new newspaper company.[5]
He became the chief editor of the Dawn newspaper in April 1966[4] after the long time editorAltaf Husain decided to join the cabinet of President of Pakistan, Field MarshalAyub Khan in March 1965. Altaf Husain had been hand-picked by Jinnah to be the editor ofDawn, Delhi before 1947.[4] He was also elected the president of theAll Pakistan Newspapers Society of Pakistan for the term 1966–67. Yusuf Haroon's independent-looking outlook annoyed the nextPresident of Pakistan GeneralYahya Khan and he had to leave Pakistan in a hurry to avoid arrest in 1969. He later decided to settle in New York and remained there after the Yahya Khan government fell in December 1971.[4] He provided financial support toSheikh Mujibur Rahman, the future President of Bangladesh, who was employed at an insurance company owned by Haroon.[6]
Yusuf Haroon died on 12 February 2011, after a protracted illness, at the age of 95 in New York.[4][1][7]
His funeral was attended by the former Pakistani prime minister MirZafarullah Khan Jamali, former Sindh governorsKamal Azfar andMoinuddin Haider, former speaker ofNational Assembly of PakistanIllahi Bukhsh Soomro and the veteran politicianSherbaz Khan Mazari.[7]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Mayor of Karachi 1944–1945 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chief Minister of Sindh 1949–1950 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Governor of West Pakistan 1969 | Succeeded by |
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|---|---|---|
| People | ||
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| Defunct | ||
| Coverage | ||
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