Iqbal Hasan Burney was born in 1926 in Bulandshahr, India. He completed his graduate studies from Aligarh University and obtained his Master’s in Journalism from Stanford University, USA. After Partition in 1947, Burney became Chief Correspondent for APP (Associated Press of Pakistan). He also worked for the Morning News, Dawn, and Pakistan Observer. In 1962, Burney started the weekly Outlook in an attempt to create space for intellectually stimulating dialogues. While the weekly was received with great enthusiasm by the nation’s intellectual community, the venture turned out to be short-lived; in 1964 it was forced to shut down by the Ayub government. In 1972, Burney revived Outlook under the Bhutto regime in the hope that it will enjoy the benefits of constitutional protection of freedom of expression. However, this hope too was shattered when Outlook was banned again on 20 July 1974 following Bhutto’s accusation of the magazine having gone too far.

Burney was a committed journalist, and a founding member of the Karachi Press Club that was established in 1958.

I. H. Burney passed away in Karachi on 26 February 1993.