Ariful Haque Arif

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Ariful Haque Arif is a veteran journalist Of Pakistan.

Early life
Ariful Haque Arif a self made,considerably experienced journalist of Pakistan ,was born in a remote village of Indian Occupied Kashmir Peer Badesar on Jan,10 1940 and was only 7 years when his family was forced by Indian troops to leave their homeland along with thousand others, soon after partition of sub-continent India was announced.His family with other thousand refugees was sent to settle temporarily in Chak Jamal near District Jhelum in military barracks. He started his early education there in a temporary primary school. His family then moved to a village in Azad Kashmir named Dheri Sahibzadian near Khui Ratta District Kotli, Azad Kashmir; He started again his early education in Government Primary school Khui Ratta. He passed through many difficult phases right from the beginning of his life because of poverty and extreme conditions; he had to walk for 5 KM to his school bare footed. He did his Matriculation from Government High School Khui Ratta in 1960 from Board of Secondary Education Lahore and secured 10th position in the district Kotli AJK. After his matriculation, he decided to migrate to Karachi in search of suitable job and higher education.

Higher education
After his Matriculation in a small remote village of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, his family's poor financial position and his thirst for knowledge pushed him to move Karachi,The Pakistan"s Largest Metropolitan, in search of earn and learn ,Soon after his arrival in Karachi he got a job in Karachi Port Trust(Sea Port of the country) as General Outdoor Clerk , He managed to continue his higher education along with his full time job.He also obtained degree of Fazil e Urdu in 1962 from Punjab University.He passed intermediate examination in 1964 from Karachi Board of Intermediate Education from Urdu Arts College and Bachelor's of Arts(B.A) from Sindh Muslim Arts College in 1966 affiliated with University Of Karachi.And finally in the year of 1968 he secured a degree of "Masters of Arts (M.A) in Journalism" from University of Karachi.

Experience and achievements in journalism
Ariful Haque is one of the senior most journalists having 46 years of print and electronic media experience. He has 36 years experience of print media as a working journalist in Pakistan’s leading Jang Group of Newspapers. Later on he switched to TV Journalism and joined Geo TV Network and has been working there on different positions for many years. He was appointed to head a new department of Censor in Geo TV Channel in October 2002 as a Chief Censor Board and was promoted to the position of Director; he is presently serving on this position. He was assigned additional responsibilities to look after the Ramadan Transmissions of 2010 and 2011 and was appointed as Group Director of a new department by the name “Religious Affairs Content Management”. He remained on this position till June 2012. He has the honor to work for 26 years with Mir Khalil ur Rahman the founder of The Jang group where as he also worked with two sons of Mir Khalil-ur-Rahmam, that are Mir Javed Rahman and Mir Shakil ur Rahman for a long period of 35 years. now from last 10 years till date he is working the grand son of Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman that is Mir Ibharim Rahman and thus he is the only one who had the honor to work with three generations of the group. Mr. Arif joined the Jang group as sub editor on 16th April 1967 and was elevated to the position of District page In-charge of Jang after 3 years in 1970.Later on he was transferred to reporting section and assigned to work as reporter, he continued working in this capacity for 32 Years on different occasions, first as political reporter, court reporter and then diplomatic correspondent. He was also promoted to the position of chief reporter twice from 1975 to 1986.Mr. Arif also conducted the Jang forum with the prominent politicians, Ulemas, Social workers, and other personalities of Pakistan and abroad. In 1993 he was transferred and assigned to establish The Jang London Bureau in Karachi. He established the London bureau which later on turned to be the full fledge news paper office which is now bringing out Daily Jang London. He is one of the senior most members of Karachi press club.

During the political reporting period, he was responsible to cover and interview the visiting Heads of states of foreign countries, and Prime Ministers of Pakistan and other visiting foreign dignitaries. He also covered first Asian Islamic Conference of Islamic Countries held in Karachi in the year 1978.He also visited Dhaka, Bangladesh in 1984 to cover the summit of foreign ministers of Islamic countries during General Ziaul Haque Era. As a court reporter he reported many high profile political cases in superior courts.To name a few, arrest of Pakistan's top bureaucrat and journalist Altaf Gohar, Muhammad Sallahuddin editor Monthly Takbeer and The daily Jasarat Karachi, some of known politicians Chaudhay Zahoor Illahi, Abdul Hamid Jatoi, Illahi Buksh somroo , Sher Muhammad Muree and Ghaus Buksh Bazinjo and government ban on The Daily Jasarat during Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (1972-77)regime.He also covered Corruption case against Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari and suicide case of Asif Ali Zardari, Murtaza Bhutto murder inquiry tribunal 1996-1997 and Nawaz Sharif's plane hijacking case and appeal against the decision of anti terrorist court in Sindh High Court.

Personal life
Ariful Haque got married on May 15,1970 with Jamila Begum in Karachi, who later on expired on January 26,2007. He has two sons Engineer Ijaz Arif and Dr Jawad Arif and daughters Dr Rabia Arif, Dr Hina Arif and Dr Sarah Arif.All are settled in USA.