The life and times of comrade Tariq Aziz.

The year was 1964; a young Tariq Aziz came to the office of General Manager Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV) Ubaid-ur-Rehman seeking a job. Ubaid Sahib, who was working in Civil Aviation Authority as Chief Engineer (Communications) before starting PTV in 1962 as a joint venture with Nippon Electric Company (NEC) of Japan was asked to spearhead this venture. In the backyard of Radio Pakistan, a tent was affixed for this ambitious project. Later on, a bungalow was hired on Empress Road across the street where the offices were moved while in place of the tent, a small studio building was erected from where PTV went on air in November 1964. Those were good times, merit prevailed and most positions were filled without delays or approach. The young man was desperate as he was the only bread earner for his mother and four sisters. After a brief evaluation he was hired as a newscaster. This was his second break in life. Earlier, the legendary Razi Trimizi had introduced him to Radio. Later on Razi Sahib also joined PTV as a producer. Ubaid Sahib did all the hiring for the Corporation including the talented Aslam Azhar. In 1967, the post of GM was upgraded to Managing Director (MD) and as always, a bureaucrat was nominated to take over. As a true professional, on being superseded by a less qualified person, Ubaid Sahib resigned in protest while the rest continued.

Tariq Aziz opened the innings for PTV with his unique voice and oration together with total command over the Urdu language. There was no looking back for this talented young man from Sahiwal (Montgomery) as he liked to remember it. I met him in 1965 for the first time when we went to stage a play written by the legendary children's playwright Aziz Asri. The original play was staged at the Young Folks League auditorium on the Mall under the title of; 'Khushi Ka Taj' (Crown of Happiness). My elder sister Huma played the role of 'Pari' (Fairy) while I tried to manipulate my way through to get the Crown. Then came the war in September 1965. PTV played an important role in the war effort and Tariq Sahib established himself as an announcer while other individuals like Muzaffar Hussain started to read the news. Now the pair of announcers consisted of Tariq and Kanwal Appa. It did not stop here; he then acted in several plays with outstanding performances. One of my favourites was 'Teesra Aadmi'. In those days, the black and white three-hour transmission was direct as recording technology had...