Waris Mir

Waris Mir (22 November 1938 – 9 July 1987), was a Pakistani journalist, intellectual, writer and academic known for his struggle to uphold the cause of democracy and press freedom. A staunch believer in the basic human rights of freedom of thoughts and expression.

Mir completed his secondary school education at Murray College in Sialkot, a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan known for its intellectuals and the birthplace of the poet Allama Iqbal. He received his master's degree in Journalism and Mass Communication in 1964 from the University of the Punjab, Lahore and joined the same department as a lecturer in 1965. He completed his M.Phil. in Journalism from City University in London in 1976. He was appointed Chairman of the Mass Communication Department in the University of the Punjab where he taught for over 20 years while at the same time writing articles and columns in Urdu newspapers of the country. He wrote on national and international issues of his times. He was popular amongst his readers, especially during General Zia-ul-Haq's martial law.

A staunch believer in the basic human rights of freedom of thought and expression, especially during the Martial Law periods of President General Ayub Khan and General Ziaul Haq. Despite facing censorship snipping, threats, mental torture and vandalism, he stood his ground firm against all odds, upholding his principled stance of opposing dictatorship and backing democracy and freedom of expression. The books authored by Mir in Urdu included Hurriyat-e-Fikar kai Mujahid (The warriors of the intellectual freedom), Kaya Aurat Aadhi Hai (Is woman half the human?), and Fauj ki Sayasat (The politics of the Army).

Waris Mir died of a sudden cardiac arrest at the age of 48 under mysterious circumstances. He was laid to rest in the Punjab University graveyard close to the New Campus Underpass which was renamed as the Waris Mir Underpass by the provincial government of Punjab in 2013. At the time of his death Mir was at the peak of his professional career as a writer. His writing on Pakistan's contemporary politics, the army's meddling in politics, feminist issues, cultural reforms, religious beliefs, philosophical questions, literary references, and historical background continued to remain relevant long after his death. According to Asma Jehangir writing in The News International in 2013: