KARACHI: Friends and colleagues of eminent media person, actor and writer Imran Aslam, who passed away on Dec 2 last year, went down memory lane to share their views on his life and work at an event held at the Arts Council on Wednesday evening.

The programme, which was moderated by Beena Sarwar, began with a video message from the UK of Aslam’s sister Ayesha Fatma, followed by another online message of Aslam’s friend Nazir Kamal from Malaysia.

Akbar Ali Khan said he met Aslam in 1968. He recited a section of Munir Niazi’s Urdu poem dedicated to his late friend.

This was followed by a video, prepared by Samina Pirzada, in which Usman Pirzada, Salman Shahid and Sarwat Ali spoke about their friend Aslam and the days they spent together at Government College in Lahore. Usman Pirzada said Aslam had many talents. Salman Shahid mentioned that his late friend had the best one-liners.

Anwar Rammal shed light on the film (which was never released) on Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah in which Aslam played Mr Jinnah’s character.

Rayomand Kotwal said Aslam was a literary, artistic and cultural genius. “When we first heard about him that he was dating Fareshteh [Aslam’s wife] we thought he must be pretty special. And he was special… It’s so appropriate for him to be in Jinnah [film] because he exemplified secularism and inclusiveness. He loved everyone. As a friend remarked, he was an equal opportunity offender.”

Columnist Nadeem Farooq Paracha said he met Aslam in March 1986 when he (Paracha) was 19 years old — a troubled, chaotic, wild young man. “He was my mentor. For many years I used to go visit him in his apartment at Sidco Centre. He’d always be surrounded by all kinds of people. He was always at the centre of it. He was so many things to so many people. In 1993, he became editor of The News, which I joined as a feature writer. One of things he started was a column called ‘Coffee House’.”

In those days, Paracha added, reports about women not treated well at mazars poured in. Aslam asked him to do something on the subject. He gave him a long burqa and told him wearing it would make him understand the situation better.

Dawn Media Group CEO Hameed Haroon, who was the first speaker of the first segment of the event, said Tippu (Aslam) would call the evening [on Wednesday] an existential experience. “We’re talking about somebody who’s so alive that it’s difficult to believe he isn’t among us.”

Recounting his association with Aslam, Mr Haroon said it all started with an encounter at the LSE (London School of Economics). “It was I think a Thursday in 1970, and Tippu was going to transfer to the LSE from a college in South of London. It’s quite obvious that he was not an ordinary person. It was obvious that he’d come there to be stationed and then to move. There are many episodes at the LSE I could speak about in theatre. I first directed him in The Bald Soprano by Eugene Ionesco. He had done an Ionesco play prior to that. He loved the playwright. How could anyone love theatre of the absurd at the age of 19? What happened subsequently was that Tippu and I started working together.”

Mr Haroon said there were two scars in Aslam’s life: 1) the loss of Dhaka 2) his mother’s passing. “These two things influenced him very deeply.” He also talked about Aslam’s love of Bhitt Shah (Sindh in general) and Sufi music and briefly touched upon the massively successful play Love Letters in which he directed Aslam.

The second panel, hosted by Shahzeb Jillani, had Ghazi Salahuddin as its first speaker. Mr Salahuddin spoke about the early days at The News and Aslam’s ability to gather a ‘dream team’ for it.

Actor Sajid Hasan spoke via a video link and called Aslam a big name in the fields of journalism and writing. Zarminae Ansari’s message about Aslam and his association with the project ‘The Joy of Urdu’ was relayed through a video as well.

Zohra Yusuf said when she read Aslam’s first column she thought it was all very figurative, closer to magical realism. “For many years I tried to persuade him to write a book, and I think it would have been a bestseller. He was hugely popular at The Star because of his wit and because he was so warm towards his colleagues.”

Mazhar Abbas said Aslam changed the culture of journalism in Pakistan.

Faiza Kazi highlighted Aslam’s long association with Grips Theatre for which he used to write plays.

Arshad Mahmud said he was a couple of years senior to Aslam and Usman Pirzada at Government College, so initially he wouldn’t think of him much, but gradually “he grew high in my esteem” because of his writing talent, wit and his understanding of music.

Khaled Anam’s video message included a song.

In the second last segment of the programme Frieha Altaf shared her views with the audience when she first ran into Aslam in 1989 and was doing a fashion event — a Maheen Khan show. Afterwards, their association grew stronger.

Indian journalist Rajdeep Saredesai in his online message said, “I once suggested to a friend that Imran Aslam and I are almost like soul brothers. We came from the twin cities of Mumbai and Karachi. We shared similar interests from politics to sport to entertainment to cinema. He was very kind to me every time I came to Karachi, and when he came to Delhi we were able to host him, too. In his passing away, I have lost a dear friend, someone whom I will miss much.”

Yaqoob Haroon said he knew Aslam for the last 32 years and learned a lot from him.

Mir Ibrahim said Aslam was a mentor to him.

Ahmed Shah said he knew Aslam from the days when he used to visit his journalist friend Mazhar Abbas at The Star.

Riaz Aslam (Imran Aslam’s brother) said his brother was fond of acting from childhood.

Poet Zehra Nigah said she knew Aslam’s mother, and all the qualities that Aslam speakers had underlined, he had inherited from his mother.

In the last segment of the event, Aslam’s son Aryaan said, “Father, friend, confidant, mentor, guide… I always knew abba was this magical person. He truly was one of his kind, highly intelligent, witty without even trying to be. Above all, he was a good man.”

Fareshteh Aslam thanked all those who had made the remembrance event possible.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2023