Adil Najam
Back in June 2009 I had first written by Prof. Jagan Nath Azad, who had been asked by the Quaid, Mr. Mohammed Ali Jinnah, to write the very first national anthem of Pakistan. Prof. Azad’s Aé sarzameené paak was, in fact, Pakistan’s first national anthem, until it was later replaced by the current anthem. Prof. Jagan Nath Azad, a Punjabi Hindu, later migrated to India but remained a staunch advocate of Indo-Pakistan friendship (see videos here).
At that point I had not been able to find a copy of the full tarana and since then I as well as other readers have been eagerly looking for a copy. Today, reader Adil Mulki found one here and I am delighted to share it with our readers (thanks also to Heritage Online where it was posted; Reader Shahid now alerts me that thanks are also due to ATP friend Beena Sarwar who originally uncovered this via Prof. Azad’s son Chander K. Azad, here):
An English transliteration is provided below for those who cannot read Urdu. I look forward to readers helping out with an actual translation.
Aye sar zameen-i-Pak
Zare tere hain aaj sitaron se tabnak
Roshan hai kehkashan se kahin aaj teri khak
Tundi-e-hasdan pe ghalib hai tera swaak
Daman wo sil gaya hai jo tha mudaton se chaak
Aye sar zameen-i-Pak!Ab apne azm ko hai naya rasta pasand
Apna watan hai aaj zamane main sar buland
Pohncha sake ga is ko na koi bhi ab gazand
Apna alm a hai chand sitaron se bhi buland
Ab ham ko dekhtey hain atarad hon ya samaak
Aye sar zameen-i-Pak!Utra hai imtehan main watan aaj kamyab
Ab huriat ki zulf nahin mahiv-e-paich-o-taab
Daulat hai apne mulk ki be had-o-be hisaab
Hon ge ham aap mulk ki daulat se faiz yab
Maghrib se hum ko khauf na mashriq se hum ko baak
Aye sar zameen-i-Pak!Apne watan ka aaj badalne laga nizam
apne watan main aaj nahin hai koi ghulam
apna watan hai rah-e-taraqi pe tez gam
azad, bamurad jawan bakht shad kaam
ab itr bez hain jo hawain thin zehr naak
Aye sar zameen-i-Pak!Zare tere hain aaj sitaron se tabnak
Roshan hai kehkashan se kahin aaj teri khak
Aye sar zameen-i-Pak!
P.S. Would it not be really wonderful if we could also find an audio recording from when it was the national anthem!
Atleast the national anthem is in our national language i.e. Urdu not Persian
So glad you found this. Have been looking forward to reading it. Although I have to say, I prefer the current one much better. Although this is very nice as a national song, the grace of the current one is more.
Creation of Pakistan was due to economical oppression of Muslim.But after achieving the Independence the movement was high jacked.Our elders locked there houses in India when moving to Pakistan .They thought when thing get normal they will move back .Jinah had idea that the relation ship with India will be like USA/Canada .
But every body know how we get trained by our gov.I can not forget the movement when i was in class 7th the one day our teacher told us that now onward you need to learn Arabic and they hired teacher who was muazen in masjid who him self can not able to speak Arabic.
The book was nicely printed and every student start trying to keep that teacher happy .This is how we passed that Arabic paper.
Does our parents were not good Muslims.
Still i can not understand that what is our relation with Arabs.Who pock there nose in our internal affairs now and then .
I want this TARANA BACK.
A national anthem written in the national language wouldve been a better choice.
Wow, Good to see the first (old) national anthem of our country. It also sounds really good but it’s not as good as the current national anthem. Thanks for making us aware of the first ever national anthem of our country.