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!
I just read the Safdar Mahmood article (I wish they could make the font size on these larger). For someone who is just trying to “find the truth” he seems NOT to find much at all.
He does not find a record of the tarana in the radio archive. I am sure there are many many things from that period that are not in the archive, but that does not mean they did not exist. So, I am not too convinced by this just yet.
Also, I am not sure of all the problems we have this is really the one to get all worked up about. I hope that between Dr. Mahmood and Dr. Najam they will be able to figure out what happened here. There must have been an anthem of some sort between 1947 and when the new anthem came. What was it?
Doesn’t really matter much now, frankly, but would be nice to know what it was.
@Watan Aziz: don’t you think you just cam up wit a lame analogy to refute Dr.Safdar’s claim?
And since I never saw the birth certificate of Dr. Azad, he was never born either.
This is simply not true! Mr Najam can you please reply to Dr Safdar Mehmood’s column? I am waiting for your response.
http://www.jang.com.pk/jang/jun2010-daily/06-06-20 10/col4.htm
Dr Safdar cited Pakistaniat in his column and refuted any such claim by mentioning that radio Pakistan’s archive does not have any such record.
tinyurl.com/2w2oukm