Out of sight, but never really out of mind.

Aamina Sheikh had stepped away from the Pakistani entertainment circuit about seven years ago, but all the work that she had done till then was never really forgotten. By the time she left, Aamina’s repertoire was already extensive, boasting a wealth of diverse, critically acclaimed acting roles as well as standout, experimental work in fashion editorial shoots.

She would play the role of a thwarted wife with as much ease as she would slip into a designer gown, play around with eye make-up and smoulder at the camera. She could be demure, pious, evil, manipulative, the wallflower smiling piteously from a corner of the room, or the glamorous siren who was hard to miss.

Aamina Sheikh was just not the sort of actress that you forgot easily. She had worked long and hard for years to ensure this.

And yet, she suddenly left, burdened by the obstacles that her personal life threw her way. One wondered, fleetingly, when a past hit drama came to mind or one of Pakistan’s more memorable movies in the past decade were recounted, or when the fashion editorials of yore were remembered, if Aamina would ever come back.

Back to the grind

Now, she has.

She took her time, but Aamina Sheikh has returned to the acting field with one of the most outstanding dramas to be seen on TV in recent times: Case No.9, which portrays the struggles faced by a rape victim and ambitiously navigates the legal chicaneries of the courtroom. Aamina plays lawyer to the victim, enacted by Saba Qamar, solemnly chanting out facts and figures and presenting arguments.

Some months ago, she also acted in the multi-starrer Jo Bachay Hain Sung Samait Lo (JBHSSL), the much-delayed web-series touted as Pakistan’s first original production to eventually stream on Netflix.

The stylish actor built an extensive repertoire of work in TV dramas, films and fashion editorials before stepping away completely for seven years to put her own life in order and to raise a family. Now older and wiser, she is making a comeback on the screen. What has changed in the intervening years?

And while there had been times in the past when I had connected with Aamina, proposing a one-on-one, we finally get to meet now. She thinks it’s the right time and I have to agree — she’s back at work and has projects to talk about. She looks sensational — wearing a business suit, her hair parted to the side, skin glowing, her eyes accentuated with smoky make-up. Aamina Sheikh has always been a pro at oozing style.

The last time we had met professionally was ages ago, when she was promoting her movie Cake. Is she a different person now? “Yes, definitely,” she nods. “I have a similar passion for my work but it has its own place. It is not equal to who I am.”

Was there a time when your work did define you? “Of course, there was a time when I was completely immersed in the rat race. I was young and ambitious and I was intent on proving myself. I wanted to earn more and I also wanted to achieve all these goals that I had set for myself.

“Back then, becoming the face of a renowned multinational soap or shampoo brand or being in the advertisement of a major mobile network was a big deal. These were major achievements that made the industry start to take you more seriously.

“I am not in that race anymore,” she says. “For one, I have already put in the long hours and hard work in the past and people know my potential and what I can deliver. Also, if at 20 you have certain goals and then you have the same goals at 30 and then at 40, you’re not evolving with time. When you are simply racing after moving targets, you think that your work defines your worth. It is only when you distance yourself that you gain more perspective, you live life, you calm down your mind and your body and start living holistically.”

She adds, “If I don’t experience more in my life, how will I even grow as an artist and bring something different to the plate?”

I felt that I needed to step back and take a break. I needed to give myself that time because things had happened in my personal life which had impacted my body and mind, and I just needed to breathe, pause, and then return to my optimal, so that I could deliver to my children and my family.”

This ‘something different’, at this point, is her role in Case No.9. Did she spend hours rote-learning all the legalities that she says on screen with apparent ease? “I learnt them but I would still fumble and ask for retakes, especially in the scenes where I had a roomful of A-listers sitting behind me in the courtroom!” she laughs.

“There was this pressure to deliver the lines in the best, most precise way possible. Even asking for multiple takes would be unnerving because, when you’re acting all the time, often your dialogue flow is smooth. I, on the other hand, was rusty.

“Luckily for me, I was working with people who know my journey and have worked with me before. Both Saba Qamar and Faysal Quraishi have known me, know my work, and their presence there was comforting for me. It helped me overcome the challenge of this role.” She laughs self-deprecatingly. “Had I been working with Gen-Z actors who didn’t know my work, they probably would have frowned and asked why I was there!”

But you haven’t been gone for that long, I interject, and you were part of a long line of hit dramas that are still remembered. “That’s very kind of you,” she smiles.

We take a minute to recall some of her most stellar past projects — many of them dating back to when social media was not all-encompassing. “Some of my best work was with A&B Productions, helmed by Asif Raza Mir and Babar Javed. That was the platform which refined me as an actor and I honed my craft working with actors such as Fahad Mustafa, Faysal Quraishi and Naumaan Ijaz.

“There were some heavy duty scripts that I worked with, for dramas such as Umm-i-Kulsoom, Aik Hatheli Pe Hina Aik Hatheli Pe Lahoo and Mera Saaein, parts 1 and 2. Later, I acted in movies such as Seedlings, Lamha and Josh. This one brand invested into remakes of old Lollywood films and Fawad Khan and I enacted characters played by Waheed Murad and Zeba in a remake of Armaan!”

She pauses. “We did so much. It’s just that a lot of people don’t know about it now because there was no social media back then.”

But people do remember. For instance, when she and Saba Qamar posted pictures together while working in Case No.9, the Instagram audience immediately commented that the ‘Maat sisters’ were back, recalling their drama Maat. “It felt amazing,” says Aamina. “Both of us were really happy that people still remembered our drama together.”

Case No.9 is a special project. Did she sign on to it as soon as she heard the story? “I thought about the role while the story was being narrated to me by the director, Syed Wajahat Hussain, but really there was never any question about not playing this character,” she says.

“Since I had not been working for a while, I looked up Wajahat’s work and then, when I talked to him and he told me the story, I knew that this was a project that was important for me to take on as an actor, as well as an individual who holds some influence in society and has gotten an opportunity to leave a mark.

“There was a lot of responsibility on me, to be the channel for dispatching information that would make the audience aware about the legalities involved in such cases. I don’t play a traditional drama character, she’s mostly two-dimensional, with very few emotional greys, except when she’s having an argument with the opposition’s lawyer.”

She recalls: “During the shoot, Wajahat would joke with me that I would have women asking me to take on their cases once the drama aired, assuming that I was actually a lawyer! I think he cast me in this role because he thought that I could bring authenticity to it. The entire cast, in fact, fits perfectly into their roles.

“This is a unique project, where a lot of thought and effort has been put into every aspect, from the cast to Wajahat’s direction, the script written by Shahzeb Khanzada, to the producers at 7th Sky Entertainment, who were intent on delivering quality to the platform on which it has aired, ensuring that the drama will reach the masses.

“Even during the shoot, Shahzeb would keep updating the script, according to the latest developments in the legal system. Every law and statistic quoted in the drama is verified and true.”

Case No.9 may have marked her acting comeback, but she actually ventured back into acting some months ago, with JBHSSL. The series’ Netflix premiere had been tentatively scheduled for summer this year, but has now been delayed — it is conjectured, due to Indo-Pak tensions. Was she disappointed that JBHSSL did not air first?

“I actually think that it is better that Case No.9 came first,” Aamina responds. “Our main domain in entertainment is TV and that had always been my playing field, although I did dabble with film now and then. I felt like I was coming full-circle, making a return to acting with TV, on a channel — Geo — that I had worked with first, as soon as I had graduated.”

She continues, “It was also great that I first acted in Jo Bachay Hain Sung Samait Lo. It was like returning home. I was acting with a lot of my contemporaries and the vibe was the same, I was familiar with the character graph and I was able to slip into the role easily. The role was just offered to me at the right time and the scheduling worked for me, with five days’ shoot here, two weeks there.

“It is a multi-starrer project with many tracks and the shoot was all nicely distributed. The travelling was in odd places but it wasn’t too rigorous. It was my test run because, before that, for nearly seven years, I had dedicated myself entirely to my children and family. It was only now, that my younger one Issa was slightly more independent, that I thought that I was ready to come back to acting.”

The personal rigmarole

Did she never feel a void in her life, setting aside her career entirely while focusing on her personal life?

“No, I felt that I needed to step back and take a break,” she says matter-of-factly. “I needed to give myself that time because things had happened in my personal life which had impacted my body and mind, and I just needed to breathe, pause, and then return to my optimal, so that I could deliver to my children and my family.”

It was assumed that she took a break from acting when her marriage did not work out. She nods. “Yes, that was one of the main reasons. It was a very difficult time for me. I had just gone through a divorce and I had a baby with me who I was nursing and I just needed to distance myself from the chaos and confusion, from trying to hold the fort together, trying to keep face while the reality was something different altogether.

“I had always been a private individual, but I had been part of a celebrity marriage and, by the very nature of it, it was part of this field. I considered moving to the US — both my daughter and I are US citizens — and I did, for a while. My brother and some very close family friends live there. For some time, I was lost but then my family stepped in and helped me restructure my thoughts. I knew that I had to figure things out for myself and for my baby. Eventually, I moved to Dubai and started building a life for myself there.”

She then got married for the second time. She nods. “Both my husband Omar and my family were very involved in getting us together. I think that, had my parents gotten the chance to get me married the first time round, they would have chosen someone like him for me. A new life started for me and it was all very intentional, very practical. I had to keep my baby in mind and what we both wanted from life.

“When I uploaded my wedding photos on Instagram, I got so much love from my audience and people from the industry. I have been very lucky. People have just always known, understood, respected my space and sent prayers.”

Aside from the wedding photos, she has mostly kept her personal life very private. Unlike the Instagram pages of many of her peers, there is no constant outflow of Eid and vacation photos. Is this intentional?

“Yes, it is intentional, but posting on social media also doesn’t come naturally to me,” she says. “A large chunk of my career spanned the time when we were just getting used to Facebook! Aside from this, I just feel that my children and my husband are individuals with their own likes, dislikes and lives. When I share something on social media, I won’t just be sharing it with a group of school moms — because of the nature of my career, I have an entire drama-watching audience that will see those pictures. Why should I expose my family to the world just for a bit of instant gratification?”

Is she a cool mom? She nods and laughs. “So far, I am! And when I am not cool, my daughter Meissa tells me that I have the potential to be cool.” She adds, “For a while, both my children weren’t really aware that I was somebody in Pakistan’s pool of actors. It is only when I restarted work and discussed if I should do it with Meissa, that she became more aware of it. Now she gets excited that her mum’s an actor and she’s gone for a shoot. On the flip side, she wants me to dress up when I come for school pick-up — that’s something I cannot do! There’s no make-up team there getting me ready for school pick-up,” she grins.

Now that she is considering taking on more acting projects, does she think that living in Dubai may be a disadvantage to her professionally? “Actually, no,” she says. “I am lucky that I can pick and choose the projects that I work on, because I don’t need a constant flow of income to keep my house running. Also, Dubai isn’t too far. Even if I suddenly get called in to be part of an ad, I can fly in within a day’s notice.

“At this stage in my life, I also have a very busy family routine. My children have entire worlds of their own, with friends and birthday parties to go to and plans for camping and stargazing during school breaks. There were projects that were offered to me when my son Issa had just been born but I couldn’t have managed the travelling and the long hours. Now that he is four, I can work in one or two projects every year. Moving forward, as my children grow older and life evolves, I will be able to do more.”

Older and wiser, Aamina Sheikh is still innately stylish — and she still has the talent and screen presence to uplift a story and breathe life into a character. She is in no hurry, taking on one project at a time — but chances are, those projects will be worth the wait.

Published in Dawn, ICON, November 2nd, 2025