Zulfiqar Ali Bukhari often abbreviated as Z. A. Bukhari (

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

and later

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. He is notoriously remembered for being the reason

Bade Ghulam Ali Khan Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan (2 April 1902 – 23 April 1968) was an Indian Hindustani classical vocalist, from the Patiala gharana.Radio Pakistan Radio Pakistan serves as the national public broadcaster for radio in Pakistan. Although some local stations predate Radio Pakistan's founding, it is the oldest existing broadcasting network in Pakistan. The network was established on 14 August ...

Early life

He was born into a family of ''

peers Peers may refer to: People * Donald Peers * Edgar Allison Peers, English academician * Gavin Peers * John Peers, Australian tennis player * Kerry Peers * Mark Peers * Michael Peers * Steve Peers * Teddy Peers (1886–1935), Welsh international ...

'' (Sufi mystics) on 6 July 1904 in

Peshawar Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...

. His family was of mixed

Kashmiri Kashmiri may refer to: * People or things related to the Kashmir Valley or the broader region of Kashmir * Kashmiris, an ethnic group native to the Kashmir Valley * Kashmiri language, their language People with the name * Kashmiri Saikia Baruah ...

and

Hindkowan Hindkowans (lit. "Indian-speakers"), also known as the Hindki, is a contemporary designation for speakers of Indo-Aryan languages who live among the neighbouring Pashtuns, particularly the speakers of various Hindko dialects of Lahnda. The o ...

ethnicity. Zulfiqar Ali Bukhari, or Z. A. Bukhari as he was popularly known, came to

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

after passing his matriculation exam. His elder brother

Patras Bokhari Syed Ahmed Shah (Urdu: ), commonly known as Patras Bokhari (October 1, 1898–December 5, 1958), was a Pakistani humorist, writer, broadcaster and diplomat who served as a Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations. Born in Pes ...

, one of Urdu's finest humorists, lived there. At

, the younger Bukhari took admission into

Oriental College Punjab University Oriental College, commonly known as Oriental College, is an institution of oriental studies in Lahore. It is located next to Government College University, Lahore. It was founded by Adi Brahmo Samaj preacher Pundit Navin Cha ...

and completed his ''Munshi Fazil'', the highest degree at that time in the oriental branch of knowledge.

Career

Z. A. Bukhari in his autobiography ''Sarguzasht'' writes: "As I came out of a tea house in Peshawar, I ran into my friend Qazi. Reading a clipping from Lahore's newspaper Tribune again and again, he was just smiling in reaction to it. On being asked, he told me that an advertiser had invited applications, in care of a post box, for someone who knew

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

Pushto Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official languages ...

and Punjabi. The mere thought that how anybody could know that many languages was making him smile. And I thought "well, I at least know a little of all of them". I stormed into a typist's shop, typed an application and mailed it mentioning the names of Mirza Mohammad Saeed Dehlvi and Dr Mohammad Iqbal as references." The advertisement was from

Shimla Shimla (; ; also known as Simla, List of renamed Indian cities and states#Himachal Pradesh, the official name until 1972) is the capital and the largest city of the States and union territories of India, northern Indian state of Himachal Prade ...

's Board of Examiners (an institution established in

to teach vernaculars to the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

officers) and Bukhari was selected for the post. It was back in 1925 and he was 21. He became a

Munshi Munshi is a Persian word, originally used for a contractor, writer, or secretary, and later used in the Mughal Empire and India for native language teachers, teachers of various subjects, especially administrative principles, religious texts, ...

(or a teacher) and was ultimately promoted as the head of the bureau of translation. Besides his profession, Z. A. Bukhari also took part in other theatrical activities. One of Bukhari's British students at

was later posted as ''Assistant District Commissioner'' to the then governor of

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

. And when the government decided to run the radio service in a professional manner and from

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

sent Lionel Fieldon – a maverick war veteran – to set up a full-fledged broadcasting station in 1935 in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

, that student of Bukhari's recommended and introduced him to Fieldon. Z. A. Bukhari's talents blossomed when the British decided to run the radio in a professional manner and launched a broadcasting station in

. Sir Malcolm Darling recruited Bukhari on the recommendation of the controller of broadcasting for All India Radio, Lionel Fielden, to set up the Indian section of the Eastern Service. Initially Bukhari and his team only contributed a weekly news report and an occasional cultural programme. Bukhari was trained by Lionel Fielden in the art of broadcasting. Bukhari was then appointed at the newly established AIR (

Akashvani (radio broadcaster) Akashvani may refer to: * Akashvani (radio broadcaster), previously known as All India Radio * Akashvani (word), a Sanskrit term commonly used in Hindu mythology See also * ''Akaash Vani ''Akaash Vani'' is a 2013 Hindi romantic drama film ...

)

station as programme director. In 1939, Bukhari, as a Station Director of AIR (

) Delhi station, got transferred to Bombay (now Mumbai) station of AIR (

). Z. A. Bukhari helped the Bombay radio station make a lot of improvements. There were many people at Bombay radio station he helped like the film playback singers,

G. M. Durrani Ghulam Mustafa Durrani (1919 – 8 September 1988; sometimes known as G. M. Durrani) was an Indian radio drama artist, playback singer, actor and music director. He was a radio drama artist and full-time singer of Lahore station, Delhi statio ...

Suraiya Suraiya Jamal Sheikh (15 June 1929 – 31 January 2004), popularly known by the mononym Suraiya, was a popular actress and playback singer in India's Hindi-language films. She was active from 1936 to 1963, and was the most celebrated actress ...

etc. Durrani called Zulfiqar Ali Bukhari his 'Ustad' (teacher) to show him respect. After the

Partition of India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the Partition (politics), change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: ...

and creation of

, he was made the first director-general of Radio Pakistan ( Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation) (then known as ''Pakistan Broadcasting Service'' on 14 August 1947, when Pakistan emerged on the world map as a new country). The most important thing is that the independence of Pakistan was announced through

Radio Pakistan Radio Pakistan serves as the national public broadcaster for radio in Pakistan. Although some local stations predate Radio Pakistan's founding, it is the oldest existing broadcasting network in Pakistan. The network was established on 14 August ...

on Aug 13, 1947 at 11:59 pm. Zulfiqar Ali Bukhari retired from the radio in 1959. In 1967, he served as the first general manager of PTV-Karachi Center (

Pakistan Television Corporation Pakistan Television Corporation ( ur, ; reporting name: PTV) is the Pakistani state-owned broadcaster. Pakistan entered the television broadcasting age in 1964, with a pilot television station established at Lahore. Background Historical co ...

) as it started broadcasting in the city of

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...

Personality

Bukhari was a workaholic. With his immense energies and love for broadcasting, he worked at the radio station till late into the night. Nasrullah Khan in his book ''Kya Qafal Jata Hai'' has described how Bukhari would sit with singers, guide them, compose new tunes and would even sing with them. He introduced many innovative ideas at radio stations. He would write many programmes and broadcast them, too.Famed broadcaster ZA Bukhari's anniversary today
Samaa TV website, Published 12 July 2012, Retrieved 31 March 2018 A hard taskmaster and a man who had been immersed in culture and literature, Bukhari did not tolerate slights in broadcasting and especially emphasized the correct

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

into an institution where raw hands got their early training and later went ahead in search of greener pastures. A great many of them, trained by him, became celebrities in their respective fields.

Literary work

Syed Ghulam Husain Jafri has authored a book on Bokhari called "Baba-e-Nasharyaat: Marconi say Bokhari Tak".URDU LITERATURE: Bukhari of the radio
Dawn (newspaper) Published 31 Oct 2010, Retrieved 31 March 2018 In this book the author has traced the history of radio from its invention to establishment of BBC,

All India Radio All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All a ...

and

and has tried to narrate the biography of Mr Z.A Bukhari. Mr. Ghulam Husain Jafri has the credit to have detailed discussion with him for about 2 years during his service at Radio Pakistan. A detailed commentary can be found on Mirza Zafar-ul-Hasan, Bukhari's friend and colleague at

and a writer in his own right, published a special issue of ''Ghalib'', a quarterly published by Idara-i-Yadgar-i-Ghalib, on Bukhari posthumously. He also compiled ''Yad-i-Yar-i-Mehrban'', a book on Bukhari. Both the publications contain Bukhari's satire columns and some transcriptions of his broadcasts, including the rare ones broadcast by him in

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

during his stay in

. Bukhari's other books include ''Sarguzasht'', an autobiography, ''Jo Kuchh Main Ne Kaha'', a collection of his verses and ''Raag Darya'', a book on classical music of

and

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Death and legacy

Z.A. Bukhari died in

on 12 July 1975 at age 71. An auditorium at Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation building in

Islamabad Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital T ...

is named in his honor recognizing his services to broadcasting in Pakistan.All Pakistan Naat Khawani competition being held at Z.A. Bukhari Auditorium PBC Islamabad today
Times of Islamabad (newspaper), Published 29 November 2017

References

External links

Zulfiqar Ali Bukhari
at ''Rekhta.org''
'Baba-e-Nasharyaat: Marconi se Bokhari Tak' Zulfiqar Ali Bukhari (father of broadcasting)
on Dawn newspaper archives
The quirky, sometimes sad tales from Radio Pakistan
Dawn (newspaper) {{DEFAULTSORT:Bukhari, Zulfiqar People from Peshawar Pakistani writers Pakistani radio presenters 1904 births 1975 deaths Writers from Karachi Radio personalities from Karachi Pakistani broadcasters Pakistan Television Corporation executives Pakistani people of Kashmiri descent Hindkowan people