Ahmad Ali Khan started his journalistic career in 1945 with Tarjuman, published in Bhopal (India). With Dawn, his association began before Independence in Delhi in 1946 and ended in Karachi in 2004. In between, he also served as editor of Pakistan Times, Lahore.
On the whole, he was with daily Dawn for nearly 42 years, 28 of them as editor/chief editor, while his journalistic career spread well over five decades. The death of Ahmad Ali Khan has removed from scene, one of giants of Pakistan's English-language journalism. Born in princely state of Bhopal in 1924, he completed his education at Aligarh Muslim University.
He shifted to Lahore and joined Pakistan Times in 1949, which he served for 13 years, during which he was detained under Security Act as part of government's crackdown on leftist and progressive elements. Ahmad Ali Khan returned to Karachi to rejoin Dawn in 1962 as Assistant Editor and remained associated with premier English daily till his first retirement in year 2000, only to return in 2003 for another short stint.
If in Pakistan Times Ahmad Ali Khan benefited from kind of atmosphere he had longed for by presence of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Mazhar Ali Khan and Zohair Siddiqui, he had privilege of working under the stewardship of stalwarts of Pakistani journalism like Altaf Husain, Altaf Gohar, Mazhar Ali Khan and Jameel Ansari.
He saw Dawn emerging stronger from every crisis during his long tenure: depression that engulfed the country and newspaper industry after tragic events of 1971, gag on press, short supply of newsprint that reduced size of daily to just eight pages, government's denial of ads to the daily to pressurise it to the regime's policies, etc.
He was instrumental in giving the daily a higher degree of credibility, independence, financial stability and prestige at home and abroad. His editorship also saw technical changes with composition of copy and printing moving from hot metal and offset printing to full computerisation. It was also under his editorship that paper launched its Lahore and Islamabad editions.
A major challenge to his editorship came in 1977 following overthrow of PPP government on issues such as presidential versus parliamentary system, Qazi courts, women's rights and guided democracy, Dawn's editorials made it abundantly clear that it stood for a Pakistan that conformed to Quaid-e-Azam's image.