KARACHI: The board of management of the Quaid-i-Azam House Museum hosted a talk by Hum Network Chairperson Sultana Siddiqui on Saturday evening on the subject ‘Quaid to Camera, The Media’s Nation Building Role’ at Flagstaff House.

Ms Siddiqui started off by thanking the organisers for giving her the opportunity to speak at an historic venue. Praising the visionary leadership of the Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, she said he made a separate country for the Muslims of India.

She said it is one’s thoughts and voice that are projected through the media, therefore one should always think big. “Vision is to do with humanity, with your people, living for your people. A leader’s vision should be to show the correct direction to his youth. That’s what the Quaid did. This is the same thing that we want for our media. The media’s role is to relay truthful and accurate news.”

Going down memory lane, Ms Siddiqui said she joined the media when it wasn’t deemed honourable (ba izzat) even for men to join the profession. For women, it was unimaginable. At the time, two professions were thought to be appropriate for women: teaching and medicine.

“Fate brought to me a place where I needed to look after my children and do a job… I came to PTV in 1973-74 for compering. There I was asked to apply for a job. There were a lot of jobs I could do at the time, but I thought that I should work in the media because through it you could project your positive thinking to people, change their mindset, allow them to think in a better way,” she said.

She said the Quaid-i-Azam gave importance to women’s participation in the freedom movement, which was why there was Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah alongside him all the time. Also, there were women like Begum Shahnawaz and Begum Hidayatullah.

Ms Siddiqui said to be in the media carries responsibility. “You need to relay truthful and positive news. Unfortunately, in the 1970s, when Gen Zia came to power, creative thoughts received dents.”

She then talked about her first play as a producer, Marvi, which was about karo-kari. She was questioned for it. “Let me tell you, there’s a difference between men and women. When women do something, they try and do it in a proper (tareeqey se), educating way, because a woman is also a mother. I received letters for doing Marvi that I was destroying tradition etc. Such things kept happening. After that, I came up with my production house.”

Ms Siddiqui also narrated the difficulties that she had to face after coming up with a production house. Things moved on and one of her sons suggested to come up with a TV channel [Hum]. That also became a challenge for her. This was the time when Indian dramas were widely watched. She decided that she would make plays carrying Pakistani stories because we had beautiful stories to tell. She also mentioned their news channel for which it was decided that it wouldn’t resort to sensationalism.

Earlier, Liaquat Merchant delivered the welcome address and also informed the guests about the museum’s background, its board of management and the work they’ve been doing.

Ameena Saiyid introduced the speaker, Ms Siddiqui, to the guest calling her a true game changer.

In his closing remarks, Ikram Sehgal said Ms Siddiqui was ageless. What she’s done is extraordinary and that she’s raised the standard of TV industry in the country.

Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2026