The Pakistani Spectator

When it comes to excellent comedy script writing, writing a comedy stage show or a drama serial we staright away think of Anwar Maqsood, Dr. Younis Butt, Haseena Moin, Mustansar Hussain Tarar and Munoo Bhai. These are the writers who have always given us clean and quality comedy to see on screen or in their books as well. Why are we lacking good writers in the present generation who could revive the drama craze in Pakistan. One could see good work from Jawad, Faisal Qureshi, Adeem Hashmi but its not up to the calibre of above seasoned writers.

The stuff we see on all channels is mere adaptations, and copies of the stuff shown on International Channels and with in Pakistan. Worst case example is Adaptation and copy of Dr. Younis Butt’s famous program “hum sab umeed say hayn” shown one Geo and its cheap and substandard imitation being shown on Duniya TV in the program called “Miss Duniya”

As a nation under great deal of stress, depression, economic turmoil and above all under the threat of extremists militants, we need to see healthy and enjoyable comedy backed up by facts not the fiction. I have seen stress and fear of the unknown at the faces of people in the last few months, its due to the combined effect of increasing concern for the safety of their children and family and also the fact that its almost impossible to cope with the increasing inflation which makes their survival very tough or even impossible at times.

In my opinion media is not playing the justified role, they always show bad side of the picture and try to sell their time by creating a sense of fear, remorse, loss, no hope and above all a feeling that nothing is going to get back to normal.

Its good that the truth is being told at channels but its always in the harsh and twisted manner. Zia regime was probably the toughest for people of Pakistan in terms of freedom of press and electronic media, but with the limited and checked and monitored resources great Comic writers came up with programs like Shosha, fifty fifty,tariq aziz show, studio 2, moin akhtar show, silver jubilee, aangan tayrah which made people laugh their guts out and for some time took their worries away from the day to day worries of life.

Now the situation is one channel showing substandard comedy which no family can dare to watch and enjoy together and other is issuing summons that Pakistan’s end is near. One would show dancing queen show and the other would show dead bodies of the blast victims, one would praise government and the other would criticise governments policies up front.

Can the bigger names in the art of writing and making people laugh sit together and form a writers guild and aggressively produce series of programs who could actually force a family to sit together and watch these programs and enjoy to the fullest. Every thing which is being done now is based entirely on commercial basis, few good looking models and actors are gathered and are asked to perform on a third rate script under the worst of directions. We need to see the fresh works of Anwar Maqsood, Haseena Moin, Dr. Younis Butt and would request the come back of Bushra Ansari, Saba Pervaiz, Moin Akhtar, Omer Sharif, Ismail Tara, zeba Shahnaz Ashraf khan, Shahzad Raza, Behroze Sabzwari, Sohail Ahmed, Iftikhar Thakur, AfzalKhab (rambo), Sarwat Atiq, Marina Khan, Shehnaz Sheikh, khayam Sarhadi, faisal Qureshi, jawad bashir, majid jahangir, Farooq Qaiser (uncle sargam fame), Shoaib Hashmi,Naveed Shahzad,Arshad Mehmood, Shakil, Najib ullah Anjum, Naji Khan, Abid Ali, Shafi Mohammad, Zulqarnain Haider, Qavi khan and Fridaus Jamal to come n rock the TV channels though comedy serials stage shows etc, we love you all and admire your great contribution to make a Nation laugh in the past and present. All of them should team up with likes of Shoaib Mansoor, Qasim Jilali,Rahat Kazmi,Farooq Qaiser, Iqbal Ansari, Jawad Bashir, Sahira Kazmi, Faisal Qureshi, Marina Khan and Nusrat Thakur to start bring in the master pieces again in front of the TV audience. It has to be done on war footing basis, so that we learn to have a good appreciative laugh at a good piece of work of all these masters of their trade that I have mentioned.

We long for good, clean constructive comedy and also the true spirit of Drama that PTV gave us, back in all channels. Enough of sorrow, distress and disappointment around, its about time that we see a lot of fire works on all channels so that our Nation can re-learn to laugh and enjoy aloud despite the miseries and sorrows around. We suffering of Swat immigrants a lot, why not all above masters of the trait join hands and produce fund raising shows and programs for a change so that a visible effort is seen on the media for the people who have already suffered a lot.

We need to give the world a message that we are young at heart tough Nation who would always have the last laughs no matter what foreign elements try to take out living spirit out of our heats and Soul.

I salute all writers and artists who have always brought smiles on our faces, whether government recognise their contributions or not, they live in the hearts of millions of Pakistanis living in and out side Pakistan and Pray to Allah to shower blessings and bounties on all of them and they live long!