Zulfikar Ali Bukhari

Distinguished Urdu broadcaster and first director-general of Radio Pakistan A versatile personality Zulfikar Ali Bukhari, the first director general of Radio Pakistan, was an excellent broadcaster, good poet and possessed deep insight into the intricacies of music. A weekly talk over radio written and delivered by Bukhari was always done in a lighter vein. While he was the station director in Bombay, the talk was broadcast under the assumed name of 'Bombaya Khan' and while holding the position of director general in Radio Pakistan his talk was labelled under the nom de plume of 'Jumma Khan'. Deeply involved in music Bukhari produced a number of lyrical features for radio and he also wrote a book about music which was entitled 'Rag Darya'. At radio workaholic Bukhari introduced many innovative ideas. He would write many programmes and broadcast them, too. In fact Bukhari was a great institution unto himself. He was appointed as a programme director at the newly established All India Radio in 1937 at Delhi. After independence, in 1947, he was made Radio Pakistan's first director-general. Later on he served as Pakistan Television's general manager. Born into a religious noble family in Peshawar, Zulfikar Ali Bukhari who passed away in Karachi also wrote an autobiography 'Sarguzasht'. A book, 'Marconi se Bokhari Tak', about the life of the great man of radio, written by Ghulam Husain Jafri, is available in Karachi.

Compiler: M. Nauman Khan