Meet the man behind PTV's popular production Ainak Wala Jin

He remembers the agony of living in a mud house with its roof leaking on rainy days. Veteran television producer, director and writer Hafeez Tahir was born to a working class family of Mian Mir village of Lahore.

Watching trains chugging on the tracks near his village is among the rich memories of his childhood.

“The track was so close to our house that we would feel the vibration of the trains and rush to the rooftop using wooden ladder before it passed-by,” he recalls.

When his father got a job in Kuwait while he was quiet young, rest of his family moved to Gulf and he was left behind. However, it proved to be a blessing in disguise for him, as he learnt to live independently at a tender age.

A keen interest in literature and performing arts dates back to the early days of his childhood.

“In junior school, one of my teachers noticed my talent and assigned me with the task of preparing a speech on renowned orator Attaullah Shah Bukhari.

“I was confused while facing the school assembly, but the overwhelming response from the students encouraged me and after that I never looked back. Debates, acting on stage and creative writing became my lifelong romance,” he says.

Being part of the literary and dramatic societies at the Islamia College Railway Road helped him evolve as a writer.

“I was lucky to be groomed by Prof Eric Cyprian, Prof Minhaj, Prof Amin Mughal and Prof Shohrat Bukhari. They equipped me with a progressive ideology to look at art, politics and social fabric, which had a lasting impression on my works,” he acknowledges.

He got admission to the National College of Arts in 1968, and left it during the second year after he got the highest marks in English during the foundation course.

“My teacher Rehmani Sahib advised me to leave architecture and go for literature. It was a watershed moment in my life,” he recalls.

His first poetry book Aathwaan Rang was printed in 1980, followed by another of Urdu poetry Zair-e-Zameen in 1993.

For the last few years, he is focusing on writing for children and his novel Manzil Manzil has been published a few months back. He is currently working on his first collection of Punjabi poetry, to be published by the end of this year.

Being the founding member of the Pakistan People’s Party, Hafeez Tahir witnessed the rise and fall of the party. His poetry reflects how a massive pro-people movement was betrayed.

“Political culture got distorted due to execution of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto; things would have been entirely different had Bhutto not been hanged,” he laments.

“Bhutto betrayed (people) in the first place; he is celebrated as a hero, but he might have been a villain of Pakistan’s political history (had he been alive).

“His fate would have been different had he implemented his slogan of ‘Roti, Kapra aur Makan’.

“Unfortunately, he unleashed (on his associates as well as opponents) a feudal hidden under his political persona. A lot of committed people like J A Rahim, which were very close to him, were humiliated,” he relates in a bitter tone.

While working as the associate editor for a magazine at Nespak, renowned actor Farooq Zameer Ghouri took him the PTV, where he started a regular job as a production assistant in 1980. He retired in 2017. His career is marked with numerous popular productions, including Ainak Wala Jin, which became his hallmark as a producer.

“The success of Ainak Wala Jin inspired me to venture into children’s literature,” he says.

“I started as a poet; but working as a film journalist for six years during mid-70s helped me develop as a prose writer,” he adds.

His multifaceted career includes his ventures as a photojournalist. His pictures were acknowledged and awarded six times by the National Press Trust. Rarely exhibiting his work, he kept on working for his own pleasure.

Soft-spoken and humble Hafeez Tahir is romantic at heart. A keen listener of various genres of music, he feels proud to have to his credit the music-based television productions featuring legendary singers including Ustad Amanat Ali, Salamat Ali, Raees Khan, Bilqees Khanam, Mehdi Hassan, Noor Jehan, Iqbal Bano, Farida Khanam and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

Originally published in Dawn, May 27th, 2018

Missing in Sindh

SINCE last August, an escalation of abductions in Sindh has yet to net any actionable information on the deplorable practice of enforced disappearances. Last week, civil society activists across the province and in Islamabad staged protests — many of them going on a 72-hour hunger strike in the scorching heat — to make their desperate pleas regarding their missing loved ones known. Footage shows several instances of intimidation and harassment by law-enforcement agencies, even as the provincial government claimed to have ‘taken notice’ of protesters’ grievances. At the same time, the Sindh High Court expressed deep ire that despite the constitution of a joint investigation force and provincial task force, neither of these bodies nor the police had managed to notify the court of any substantive progress on establishing the whereabouts of over 100 people in the province who remain unaccounted for.

Relatives of missing persons have every reason to be fearful. According to human rights groups, several campaigners on this very issue have also been ‘disappeared’ in Sindh. Meanwhile, the silence of those who have returned speaks volumes. The murder of Naqeebullah Mehsud earlier this year threw into sharp relief the practice of extrajudicial killing among officers of the very force responsible for upholding the law and protecting the public. While the incidence rate of certain crimes has reduced significantly in Karachi (the site of many disappearances) since the Rangers-led operation began in 2013, true law and order will remain elusive so long as enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings are tacitly endorsed by the state’s apathy. One way or another, the truth will out. Law-enforcement agencies must decide whether to play an obstructionist or restorative role in the writing of this chapter of our history. If they are committed to the latter, then they must ensure that survivors of illegal detentions and custodial violence are able to testify, and their families able to advocate for them, without meeting further harm.

Chinese loans

THE growing tendency to rely on loans from China to finance the current account deficit needs to be carefully reviewed before matters assume unmanageable proportions. The finance minister announced a $1bn loan from China the day after the budget was announced, and has been talking of borrowing a further $2bn before his term ends, which is just days away. Evidently, the government has decided not to stick to its original plan and engage with the global market in the event of a Eurobond flotation. So borrowing on commercial terms from state-owned Chinese banks as a way to finance the growing external sector deficit is fast becoming the new norm, a fact that has very troubling implications for the country.

For one, we do not know what to expect as we continue to go down the road of indebtedness to China. There might be some comfort in the thought that all will be well if our government, or any of our leaders for that matter, had a decent record of comprehending the long-term ramifications of such actions. But apparently, these are not understood. What we are being offered, instead, is a story that might appear reasonable on the face of it, but that may or may not work out. According to this narrative, we are borrowing in the short term to invest in long-term increases in competitiveness, and once those investments begin to yield results, the adverse terms of trade will be reversed and the debts incurred today will automatically pay themselves off. Such optimism is hardly warranted, as we tread the path of increasing indebtedness to an emerging great power, while holding on to nothing but this happy thought. Successive governments in Pakistan have shown a track record of taking the money without worrying about the consequences or the strings that might come attached. The example of the Musharraf regime comes readily to mind in this context. This time the inevitable appeal to the IMF is being postponed with the aid of bilateral loans from China — with no idea of how far we intend to go down this tricky slope. This is the price of failing to reform, to adapt. A new chapter in Pakistan’s dependence on external powers may be opening before us as these loans grow and the deficits persist; one more time, nobody knows how it will all end.

Spymasters speak

TWO former spy chiefs across the seemingly unbridgeable Pakistan-India divide in conversation with a writer was an unusual enough premise for a book.

Guaranteed to draw widespread interest and likely to stir debate if the subjects of the book offered candour instead of guarded comments, Spy Chronicles appears to have led to more controversy than either the Indian or the Pakistani state seem willing to accept.

Retired Gen Asad Durrani, the ISI chief between August 1990 and March 1992, and embroiled in the Mehrangate election rigging scandal yet again, has been summoned to GHQ tomorrow to explain comments he has made in the recently published book co-authored with former RAW chief A.S. Dulat.

DG ISPR Gen Asif Ghafoor has tweeted that Mr Durrani will be “asked to explain his position on his views attributed to him” in the book and suggested that a “violation of the Military Code of Conduct” has been committed by the former spy chief.

In the absence of any details so far about which statements attributed to Mr Durrani in the book are considered a violation of the code of conduct, further information by the military, presumably after Mr Durrani’s appearance before a disciplinary committee in GHQ, are necessary.

Mr Durrani’s comments in the book are now a part of the public record and so should the official complaint against him be made public.

Obfuscation and non-disclosure at this juncture will only deepen and prolong controversy.

Following former prime minister and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif’s recent hard-hitting allegations against sections of the state, Mr Durrani’s comments indicate a propensity by the state to push out from the national discourse — at least the controlled, public aspects of it — topics that are uncomfortable for the state or for the powerful individuals within it. That must change.

Nawaz Sharif is the only three-term prime minister in the country’s history and Mr Durrani is a veteran spymaster who has maintained a public profile more than two decades after retirement from the military.

Both men will clearly be aware of some genuine state secrets, but both can be assumed to have a good understanding of what is unquestionably damaging to the country when discussed in public and what may be painful for some to hear but that must be explored and exposed in the true national interest.

In the more immediate case of Mr Durrani, now that he has gone on the record with his book, he should speak publicly about his motivations for agreeing to the joint venture and his intentions in claiming what he has in the book.

Spy chiefs and ex-premiers in more advanced democracies have routinely published memoirs and written books on policy matters without stirring too much controversy.

In fact, such books are seen as an effort to aid the public historical record. Mr Durrani should be willing to justify what he has written.

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A.A. JOYLAND (PVT) LTD. is located in Karachi, Pakistan. Company is working in Pubs and Clubs, Amusement machines, Attractions, Amusement parks business activities.