Rasia Nayeem Hashmi
Hyderabad: Khan Lateef Mohammed Khan, Editor in Chief of Munsif Urdu daily, will be remembered for bringing in a ‘revolutionary’ change in Urdu newspapers in Hyderabad. He re-introduced the Munsif in colour and used quality newsprint.
Before December 1997, people knew Khan Lateef Mohammed Khan as an NRI from Chicago with high visibility. But during the last 23 years he came closer to the hearts of Urdu knowing people with his interaction with the public through his newspaper. The re-launching of Munsif in new highly attractive format was path breaking.
Khan was closely associated with several ‘Who is Who’ of the country like Rajiv Gandhi, Mukarram Jah Bahadur and Dilip Kumar.
Khan belonged to Yousuf Zai tribe of Afghanistan. His grandfather, Khan Mohammed Khan was invited to Hyderabad during the period of Asif Jah VI. Khan Lateef Mohammed Khan was the fourth of the five sons of Gul Mohammed Khan. He spent his childhood in Falaknuma. After graduating from Anwarul Uloom College, Khan went to the US where he did engineering from Illinois University and MBA from University of Indiana. He did PhD in business administration then stepped into the field of business. Fortune smiled upon him and he never looked back.
Khan owned several companies like Pentagon, a real estate developing firm, Khan and Associates (Chicago), Packaging industry, Dera Leasing and Construction Company, Dera Leasing Press etc. He was also the chairman of Sultan ul Uloom Education Society.
A huge commercial complex, Lateef Khan Estates, constructed by him, from where the Munsif newspaper is published, is very popular in Hyderabad.
Lateef Khan spent most of his life in US but he never detached himself from his roots in Hyderabad. He ran several society reformation campaigns through his newspaper. He started the first Urdu satellite TV Channel_Munisf_in India.
Khan Lateef Khan has a son Waseem Khan and a daughter from his first wife Dr Zakira and a son Dr Aslam Mohammed Khan and three daughters from his second wife Dr Fayyaz.
Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao has expressed his condolences on the demise of Khan Lateef Khan. Telangana CMO on its twitter handle wrote: “Hon’ble CM Sri K. Chandrashekar Rao has expressed his condolences on the demise of Munsif Daily, Editor-in-Chief Mr. Khan Lateef Khan. The CM conveyed his condolences to the members of the bereaved family.”
President of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee Uttam Kumar Reddy also tweeted: “In the demise of Khan Lateef Khan Sahab, the state has lost a towering journalist, a distinguished educationist & an eminent entrepreneur. He worked towards making quality education accessible to the common man & was a staunch supporter of secular values. We shall miss him.”
Zafar Javeed , secretary of Sultan- Ul –Uloom education society has also expressed his deep condolences on the demise of Khan Lateef Khan. In a video message he termed Mr Khan’s death as his personal loss.