In 2025, Jang, Pakistan’s oldest and one of its most widely circulated Urdu newspapers, did something unthinkable: it stopped publishing its daily editorial. A space that had, for decades, reflected the newspaper’s institutional conscience went quiet abruptly, symbolically, and without explanation.

What does it mean when a paper that has survived dictators, censorship, and the digital deluge decides it no longer has anything to say — not as a reporter, but as an institution?

A newspaper’s editorial is not a byline. It is a mirror of the collective judgment of a newsroom. That voice has now gone silent.

In conversations with seasoned journalists, the tone was not of shock, but of quiet dismay, a kind of professional mourning. Hafiz Tahir Khalil called it na qabil-e-yaqeen, unimaginable in 150 years of Urdu journalism. “Yes, opinion columns will continue,” he said, “but editorials are different. They are neutral, policy-reflective. This absence will be felt.”

Aoun Sahi pointed to the shrinking space for institutional opinion. “This could be commercial. But it’s also political. The role of the gatekeeper is shrinking, and so is the office of the editor. I fear others will follow,” he said. Pervez Bashir drew parallels with international media houses that have trimmed their editorial presence. “Globally, it’s a discernible shift,” he noted.

A former Secretary of Information recalled a time when........

© The Friday Times