Some people leave this world forever but they are actually
not gone. Their influence on lives and thoughts of people keep them alive!
We requested few people who have been close to late Aslam
Azhar's life/work or have keen observation on his work to share their
thoughts about him.
As first part of this series, we are sharing selected views
here:
I got to meet Azhar
uncle through his son and my friend Arieb Azhar, and for that I will forever be
grateful to him. I feel privileged that my daughter and I got to interact with
a man of his stature. He was a very rich man – not in terms of worldly possessions
but in the matters of the intellect. I finally met someone who could make me
shut up and listen in complete silence and awe. I don't know if it was his
voice, his knowledge, his wisdom or his self-satisfaction that inspired awe in
the people around him. People may think that Pakistan did not treat his
achievements and his intellect as well as it should have, but he never had
anything but love, respect and hope for this country. I would never forget when
he would recite beautiful words from a book or when he would tell us glorious
stories from his past. It was in such moments that I felt lucky to know him and
his family.
May he rest in peace.
Soofia Mahmood,
Photographer, Writer, & Communications professional
Toronto, Canada
Aslam Azhar is one of
those people who brought innovation to Pakistan Television through his work;
keeping in view new demands of the TV. He was a complete institution in his own self.
Hundreds of people have learned a lot from him. He was a man of principles and
therefore never compromised upon them even if it was related to his work based
income. It is worth noting is that he dared to work in his own Salman Abid,
Political
analyst, Daily Express
Lahore, Pakistan
I feel celebrating Aslam Azhar’s life and
capacity he had to do so much work for positive change in the society and
contributed a lot in his whole life. I will always cherish his unconditional
love and support he extended to me.
I cannot forget the time I spent working
with you and learning from you. You were unique, progressive, committed, active
listener, nurturing and a mentor to me. I have learned so much from you.
Especially when I was working for Oxfam; you were always interested to listen
to my stories working with grass root communities in Pakistan. You
gave me so much support and encouragement to do more work to reduce poverty and
develop empowerment. There are so many women whose lives changed during our
work filming for Voices of Pakistani Women documentaries. I still
remember an old lady’s remakes about you from Voices of Pakistani
Women. She said “Aslam Azhar is a saint who is seeking gold in the
mud.”
You were truly people’s person. You have
done so much to bring progress and positive change in this
society and you
loved to support new and fresh ideas. Most importantly you just loved
hardworking and self-made people in this country. You were so rich
inside, knowledgeable and down to earth, where no classes existed. You treated
me as an equal friend. I feel extremely privileged, honoured and
lucky to have met and known you. Your work your ideas and your
dreams about people of this country will always continue and will come true one
day as you used to say “Jado johad jari rahti hai”(struggle goes on)
Nuzhat Abbas
worked at Oxfam GB
Oxford,
United Kingdom
~August 2016
