Pointing to yet another TV channel, Jaferi comments that the programme it aired on the issue was full of errors that it does not merit a mention even.
Jaferi also refers to a TV talk show anchored by Hamid Mir wherein everybody, except for Dr Khwaja Muhammad Zakaria, tried to prove that Jagan Nath Azad had written Pakistan's first national anthem on the Quaid's request and it used to be broadcast from Radio Pakistan till 1954. He also quotes from a write-up in PIA's in-flight magazine 'Hamsafar' and the reader is convinced that they all looked too eager to accept Azad's claim without any serious research. Ali, Zaheer Qidvai, Aadil Najam and Beena Sarwar. First he enlists the interview and report, translates their certain parts into Urdu, then he reproduces some excerpts from the writings of Pakistani intellectuals, such as Mahreen F. Jaferi has built his case like an intelligent lawyer. What disturbs him, however, is that many of our friends get too emotional when bent upon proving something that suits their stance and in the process tend to forget their facts. But, at the same time, he is a level-headed and fair-minded research scholar, too. Jaferi has yet again come up with a book based on research and has very unemotionally presented his point of view, though it was quite possible for him to get emotional since he, as we all know, is a 'pakka Pakistani'. Aqeel Abbas Jaferi in his new book ' Pakistan ka qaumi tarana: kya hai haqeeqat kya hai fasana ' (Pakistan's national anthem: what is fact, what is fiction) has candidly listed all these facts ignored by Puri and his Pakistani counterparts while debating the issue. Well, this is indeed something one should be quite proud of.īut there was a little problem: there were a few odd pieces that did not quite fit into the puzzle because the overjoyed writers did not bother to crosscheck the historical facts. Titled 'A Hindu wrote Pakistan's first national anthem', the report somehow struck chords among some Pakistani media persons and intellectuals and they began spreading the report, some of them feeling quite overjoyed over Quaid's gesture of asking 'an Urdu-knowing Hindu' (to borrow the words from Puri) to write the national anthem of the nascent Muslim country.
The interview did not have much impact at that time but Luv Puri got a report based on the same interview published in the Jissue of ' The Hindu ', one of the leading newspapers of India. Later, due to the worsening law and order situation, his friends advised Azad to migrate to India and he took their advice. He also claimed that it was Pakistan's first national anthem and was broadcast (the interviewer has used the word 'sung') from Radio Pakistan's Karachi station (the interviewer has used the words 'Pakistan radio, Karachi') since Karachi was then the capital of the newborn nation. Jagan Nath Azad claimed in the interview that he wrote the anthem within five days and the Quaid approved it within a few hours.
On August 9, 1947, a 'friend' (not named in the interview) working at Radio Pakistan's Lahore station brought him a message from Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, saying that the Quaid wanted Azad to write Pakistan's national anthem. They also took the responsibility for his safety and security. Some of his Muslim friends asked him not to migrate to India and stay on, instead. According to the interview, published in The Milli Gazette 's issue of 16-31 August, 2004, at the time of Independence Jagan Nath Azad was in Lahore, his beloved city, and did not want to leave it. But what gave him renewed fame a year after his death was the controversy that raged in the Indian and Pakistani media for quite some time and Azad was at the centre of the controversy.Ī few days before his death in 2004, Jagan Nath Azad gave an interview to Luv Puri, an Indian journalist, in which he claimed to have written Pakistan's first national anthem. His contribution to Iqbal Studies was equally important. Jagan Nath Azad (1918-2004) was known for his fascinating Urdu poetry.