Hameed Nizami was born in Sangla Hill (Sheikhupura) in 1915. He left his hometown in 1932 to study at Islamia College, Lahore. After graduation he moved to Forman Christian College, Lahore, for his MA in English.
While in Islamia College he edited the college magazine named as Crescent with the additional honour of being the Deputy Editor of Sarbaan, a political and literary monthly.
He was the founder President of the Muslim Students Federation in 1937. This student body played a pivotal role in galvanising the Muslim youth under the banner of Muslim League.
It was immediately after the adoption of the Pakistan Resolution that under the instructions of the Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Hameed Nizami started the fortnightly Nawa-i-Waqt on March 29, 1940, from Lahore. In November 1941, it was converted into a weekly and in July 1944 into a daily newspaper. On all three occasions, the Quaid felicitated Hameed Nizami for his endeavours. Indeed, the very idea of Nawa-i-Waqt was to plead the Pakistan cause. Despite being a spokesman of the Muslim League, the Nawa-i-Waqt was neither a party paper, nor did Hameed Nizami desire it to be so!
Hameed Nizami belonged to a breed of journalists, who had started their career as activists in the Freedom Movement. Until his untimely death on February 25, 1962, at the age of 47, he conducted the policy of his newspaper in letter and in spirit of Hadith, which still appears on the editorial page of the Nawa-i-Waqt.
"Real jihad is to speak the truth before a tyrannical ruler.”
Hameed Nizami's belief in the freedom of the press was absolutely unassailable. According to him, "a dishonest and sycophant press can do no service to the country or the government in power. On the contrary, an opposition or critical press cannot do even one-tenth of the damage that a sycophant press can do to a government. The sycophant press keeps the leadership unaware of the sentiments of the people and the real happenings in the country. By doing this, it creates a false sense of security among the ruling elite, which unintentionally starts thinking that the populace is very happy with their policies" (Excerpts from an editorial of Nawa-i-Waqt).
One of the most distinguished aspects of Hameed Nizami's bent of mind was that he considered journalism to be full-time, all-embracing profession. Once he became a journalist, he refrained from active politics. He was a prolific speaker. He considered his newspaper to be a better vehicle to serve the cause of Pakistan than going into active politics.
Another important aspect of Hameed Nizam’s policy bias for the Nawa-i-Waqt was his total rejection of those who had opposed the creation of Pakistan.