According to Sethi, he first conceived of the idea for an independent Pakistani newspaper out of frustration: while briefly imprisoned in 1984 on trumped-up copyright charges, no newspapers had protested his arrest. The following year, he and Mohsin applied for a publishing license (called 'declaration' under the relevant Pakistani press law) under Mohsin's name, since Sethi was "too notorious an offender" to be approved. Called into Nawaz Sharif's office to discuss the application, Mohsin told him that she intended to publish "a social chit chat thing, you know, with lots of pictures of parties and weddings". It was finally approved in 1987, but Mohsin requested a one-year delay to avoid the first issue coming out during the dictatorship of General Zia ul Haq. The paper's first issue appeared in May 1989.[4]
During the rule of President Pervez Musharraf, Mohsin wrote a monthly humor column titled "Mush and Bush" featuring fictional conversations between the president and US President George W. Bush. She had previously targeted Prime Minister Sharif with a column for his "dim and authoritarian personality, his intolerance of dissent".[7] Her sister, Moni Mohsin, satirizes the country's social elites with another column for the paper, "Diary of a Social Butterfly".[7]
Mohsin advocates a liberal Pakistan and opposes religious fundamentalism. In January 2006, she argued for the right of women to participate in a marathon wearing shorts instead the salwar kameez.[8] She later became a major critic of the former cricketer Imran Khan's entry into politics, stating that he "doesn't really have a firm grip on history, or politics, or economy ... He would be very easily led and misled."[9]
^ ab"1999 Awards – Announcement". The Committee to Protect Journalists. 1999. Archived from the original on 3 September 2012. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
^ abNajam Sethi. "The good ol' bad days". The Friday Times. Archived from the original on 22 September 2012. Retrieved 30 September 2020.