Mahbub Jamal Zahedi

On 7 December 2008, Zahedi died in bed of natural causes, succumbing to a prolonged paralysis.

In 1991, Zahedi rejoined Dawn, this time as assistant editor. He published both his books on philately in the mid-90s. He retired from journalism in 2001 following a stroke.

He left Dawn in 1974 to move to Dubai to help launch the Khaleej Times, the first English newspaper in the Middle-East, where with Mahmoud Haroon he rose to become one of its establishing editors. He held the position of Khaleej Times editor for over a decade.

In 1970, Zahedi was elected Secretary General of Pakistan Writers' Guild. In the same year he also covered the UN enquiry into allegations of genocide in Nigeria.

After Pakistan Times was taken over by the National Press Trust, he served for a short period with the Civil and Military Gazette in 1963, quickly moving to Dawn within the year at the invitation of its editor, Altaf Husain, where he was given the position of news editor.

In 1960, Zahedi covered the UN General Assembly Session. After his stint with the Pakistan Observer, Zahedi moved to Lahore to work in the Pakistan Times, which was then edited by the renowned poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz. He also taught journalism at the University of Dhaka from 1960 to 1962 as a part-time lecturer.

On 7 October 1958, he was arrested late at night near Purana Paltan, Dhaka, his then place of residence, while returning home after finishing some routine desk work. The reason for the arrest was the publication of a controversial story reading that the Constitution of Pakistan of 1956 had been abrogated by Iskandar Mirza.

He was also a Colombo Plan journalism scholar in Australia in 1955 and worked with the Sydney Morning Herald and the Melbourne Gazette.

Zahedi started his career in the early 1950s working for the Pakistan Observer. By the early 1960s he held the position of assistant editor.

Mahbub Jamal Zahedi also known as M J Zahedi (21 June 1929 – 7 December 2008) was a veteran journalist and philatelist from Pakistan. During a career of nearly fifty years he served as editor of the Khaleej Times, Dubai, UAE as well the news editor and senior assistant editor of Dawn, Karachi, Pakistan.

Mahbub Jamal Zahedi was born in Dhaka in 1929. He was the son of Mizanur Rahman, the census commissioner in former East Pakistan. Zahedi studied English Literature at the University of Dhaka. He was married to Qamarunissa Begum, and had two daughters, Jamila and Selina, and a son, Dilawar. In 2003, Zahedi suffered a stroke that rendered him paralysed and bedridden.