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!
Our current tarana is a manufactured one..
this one was right from the heart.. it wasn’t meant to “serve a purpose” ..
can u even imagine a muslim leader would ask a hindu to write the national anthem of an “islamic republic” ???
and can u imagine a hindu so grateful for Pakistan ??? did he participate in the shouting of “pakistan ka matlab kya …” ?
what is this nonsense.. how can we justify the creation of Pakistan if a hindu was so happy about its creation.. the way we know hindus are according to our text books… “baniay” .. “shatir”.. and what not..
this kind of history should be burned.. buried .. forgotten.. our manufactured history is so much more soothing …
Folks, I apologize, the recording was scratchy, the last line should have been:
sara-e-paisa-mulk say bahr
History in Pakistan has always been distorted, Jinnah did not envision a Pakistan where religious bigots called the shots and sectarian outfits flourished. The religious indoctrination is the root cause of Taliban rise. Pakistan must revert back to its roots of secularism, peaceful coexistence and democratic governance. People should be the one to form the social contract not the clergy.
Well, as it turns out, there is one more anthem that **only** the choor and the usurpers of Pakistan sing.
Here it is, the leaked version:
National Anthem of Usurpers and Looters
Pak sir mary zamin shadbad
Kishwar-e-haseen shadbad
Tu nishan-e-azam-e-bun’dookistan
arz-e-Pakistan
Markaz-e-bank shadbad.
Pak sir zamin ka muraba
quwat-e-akhuwat-e-afwaj
Qaum, mulk, sultanat
sub hamarie hain
shadbad manzil-e-buildings.
Parcham-e-sitara-o-hilal
Rahbar-e-rupia-o-da’llar
Tarjuman-e-mary shan-e-hall
jan-e-Swiss-number
Mera hay Khuda-e-paisa-jalal.
Now, I know this pushes the paper too far, but we have Pakistanis dying everyday. That is the real hurt.
Swamps need to drained.
Violence as a solution needs to be rejected.
I want Jinnah’s Pakistan.
BY the way, this story circulating that they wanted an anthem in Persian is nonsense. The current anthem is more Persianized but that was not the purpose. In fact, even this one is very Persianized. That is just how these poets wrote.