The Zia Mohyeddin Program, a groundbreaking stage discussion show that featured the top figures in literature, television, and film of the day, was shown on PTV from 1969 until 1973. Zia Mohyeddin fled for the UK in the late 1970s, under Gen Zia’s rule. He didn’t shy away from the quantity of imagination he was endowed with, and from 1986 to 1989, he produced the ITV programme “Here and Now.” Zia Mohyeddin made an appearance in “The Jewel in the Crown” in 1984. Both critics and spectators admired his performance in Jamil Dehlavi’s 1992 film “Immaculate Conception” for its authenticity.
Zia Mohyeddin, who received the Sitara-e-Imtiaz Award in 2003 and the Hilal-e-Imtiaz Award in 2012, persevered all the way to the finish. On Gen Musharraf’s invitation, he founded and then oversaw Karachi’s National Academy of Performing Arts (NAPA), where he taught the stagecraft to a large number of performers, both young and elderly, and with which he stayed affiliated until his passing.
Zia Mohyeddin, the most well-known and renowned orator in both Urdu and English literature, left behind a legacy that was rich in theatrical productions, literary readings, and storytelling, all delivered in his unique speaking manner. Shakespeare, Faiz, Mir Taqi Mir, and works like Muhammad Ali Rodolvi’s letters were just a few of the authors who the late actor could hold an audience spellbound.
Zia Mohyeddin’s departure has sparked condolence messages, memories, and an outpouring of respect from a wide range of people, including politicians, artists, students, and the theatre and literature fans who may have meant the most to him.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif writes in a tribute about the artist that he has a “personality full of amazing qualities,” and that “he enthralled people for more than half a century with his unequalled skills in theatre, radio, and oratory, as well as the enchantment of his voice.” His impact will live on thanks to the hundreds of students he taught.
The caretaker chief minister of Punjab, Mohsin Naqvi, federal ministers Marriyum Aurangzeb and Sherry Rehman, and PTI leader Imran Khan also conveyed their sorrow over the passing.
