Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman saheb was the founder and editor of the Jang group of newspapers which has currently grown and become the largest and most popular group of newspapers in Pakistan. After partition, Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman, who was popularly known as Mir saheb, re-launched his Urdu newspaper, the Daily Jang from Karachi, Pakistan, and since then he and his renowned group of newspapers have continued to serve Pakistani community the world over.

At the time of partition, Jang had already been a well-established paper in British India, but Mir saheb believed that the Indian-Muslims had the right to a separate homeland also, so leaving his established business in Delhi behind, he migrated to Pakistan to serve the Muslims who had fought for their rights to a separate homeland of their own. Mir saheb was one of the most dedicated journalists of his time, and believed in doing everything in his power not only to establish his newspaper, the Roznama Jang, but through his journalistic efforts, to help the Pakistani society that he was now a part of. From dusting his own work desk, to writing an editorial no work was too high or too low for him. He put in many long hours and a lot of hard work to establish the Jang Group on its present day pinnacle of success and earn the undying trust of his readers. Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman continued to work at the newspaper till his death in 1992.

Mir saheb was a man who cared deeply for his country and his people, and through his work as one of the leading journalists of Pakistan, he tried to help improve the lives of the people of Pakistan in every way possible. The Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman Memorial Society (MKRMS) was founded after the death of this great journalist, and it continued to follow in Mir saheb’s footsteps, striving to uphold the Pakistani society just as he had once done.

Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman had always been a staunch supporter of the Quaid-i-Azam and his opinion about Pakistan and Muslims. Like the founder of the nation, Mir saheb strongly opposed the terrorism that has managed to become one of the burning issues of our times, and was consequently saddened by the state that violence and bad politics had brought Pakistan down to. MKR Society also tried to take up these issues in its seminars and conferences which are organised time to time. 

On the birth anniversary of the Quaid-i-Azam in 2004, the MKRMS organised a seminar at ICN Auditorium. Addressing the seminar, former attorney-general of Pakistan, Aziz A Munshi said: “In 1947, Pakistan had two wings, East Pakistan and West Pakistan, but due to grave mistakes made by Pakistani politicians, we lost half the country. We should learn from our mistakes, learn to tolerate one another, and prepare to sacrifice everything and work to make this country the Pakistan of our Quaid’s dreams.”
Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman was a great believer in helping the youth of Pakistan, in supporting them, nurturing their talents and lauding their successes.

To this effect, the Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman Memorial Society, MKRMS, has, on various occasions, awarded deserving and talented students. As per custom, the MKRMS has also awarded medals to the first three position holders of the Department of Mass Communication, University of Karachi in 2004. In 2004, the MKRMS also awarded the then Finance Minister, Shaukat Aziz with the 12th Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman Qaumi Yakjehti Award. Such efforts for the cause of journalism were widely acclaimed by the educationists, scholars and journalists.

Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman had always believed in championing the propagation of Urdu for he understood that being the national language of Pakistan, learning and speaking good Urdu should not be limited to classrooms only, but should be taught, learnt and used by Pakistanis even in their daily lives. Keeping this in view, the Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman Memorial Society organised a seminar to honour the Father of Urdu Language, Maulvi Abdul Haq. One of the guests at the occasion, Sajjad Naz Siddiqui said, “A separate language had been one of the reasons that had led to the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, and for this reason, Urdu should be respected and learnt by all Pakistanis as their national language.”

Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman saheb cared deeply for the people of Pakistan and strove to do everything he could to help make their lives easier and their standard of living better. During his journalistic career, he paid just as much attention to news concerning latest developments in the field of science and medicine as to everything else. In fact, Mir saheb would insist that one page or, at least one column should be dedicated solely to health-related issues, because he felt that it was of the utmost importance for his readers to know about the various health issues concerning them. This tradition is still honoured at the Jang Group of Companies where health related news is given the maximum possible coverage.

Following in his footsteps, the Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman Memorial Society has organised many seminars and events to educate people about health-related issues. One such seminar on the disease of Cancer was held in 2004 in collaboration with the Oncology department, CMH, Rawalpindi. The then First Lady, Mrs Sehba Pervez Musharraf who was the chief guest at the occasion praised the MKRMS for continuing the cause of Mir saheb in creating awareness about health and diseases in Pakistan, adding that this was a necessary step if Pakistan wished to have a healthy population.

Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman had also been a staunch supporter of preserving the art and culture of Pakistan, and promoted it in every way possible. Following this tradition of the Father of Urdu Journalism, the Mir-Khalil-ur-Rahman Memorial Society organised a seminar on ‘The growing problems of the Pakistan film industry and their solutions’. This seminar was attended by many supporters of the Pakistani culture including former culture minister Khwaja Saad Rafique.

Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman saheb  was a journalist who cared about his fellow country-men, and believed in serving them with the strongest tool he possessed—his journalistic expertise.

According to Prof Dr Nisar Zuberi, the post-Pakistan Urdu journalism era was a period that belonged to Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman of Jang Dehli. His small newspaper, which was almost a non-entity in undivided India, not only developed into an empire of lasting strength, but with it Mir saheb also aided the development of Urdu journalism, and, through his untiring efforts as the head of Jang Group, he set many examples for safe, balanced and interesting journalism for the masses. To help his people, he wrote about their problems, bringing them to light and thus helping all those in need.

As his wife once said, “Mir saheb often sustained losses to keep the high standard of his newspaper, but he never bartered his principles. His motto had been truthfulness and fearlessness. He wrote for his paper keeping himself above all biases, and with the sole objective to maintain the principle and standard that he had set for the paper.