Sindh

Ataul Haq Qasmi leaves audience in stitches

Event was held at ACP's Hasina Moin Hall

Our Correspondent March 22, 2022

KARACHI:

The Arts Council of Pakistan (ACP) Karachi organised a comedy evening with Ataul Haq Qasmi at Hasina Moin Hall.

The event was moderated by Shakeel Khan. While speaking on the occasion ACP President Muhammad Ahmed Shah said, "Qasmi has honored us - the governing body of Arts Council and its members. I am extremely grateful for his presence."

Qasmi fired the first shot at himself saying, "if someone compliments me, it feels bad, if not, it feels worse."

Referring to workaholics, Qasmi said he was the chairman of the Al-Hamra Arts Council for eight years and organised International Writers' Conference every year. "If anyone says that I have not seen a jinnee, let him see Ahmad Shah. He is such a person that no no-confidence motion has been moved against him for so long now,"

Once Zaheer Kashmiri told Munir Niazi that he wants to be by a riverside, with a cool breeze blowing, beautiful maidens pouring glasses of wine and singing an alluring melody on soothing tunes of musical instruments and Niazi said, 'it will be great to have all this, except you in the scene.'

Qasmi said this is the minus one formula.

Referring to the resident Saint of Lahore, he said that once a man came to his shrine and said, please pray that my son settles abriad just like you have settled here.

Hazrat Data Ganj Bakhsh had come from Ghazni and stayed in Lahore.

The audience had barely stopped laughing when Qasmi threw another one.

Lahories are known for their tough guy attitude. A man comes to a shrine, makes a long and heart touching prayer and as he steps out, turns around and says, "better get the prayer accepted and make sure that we don't have to come back with the same request again."

Referring to a friend Uzair, Qasmi said he would always say thanks God. One day at a funeral he said it, and we barely managed to save him from a thrashing.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 22^nd, 2022.