It was eons ago - 1964 probably - as a school boy I was attending the cricket match in the Government College, Lahore, on its centenary celebration in the college Oval. My father was playing in the ‘old boys’ team against the Indian ‘old boys’.

As I stood on the road opposite the magnificent college tower building, a European hippy walked in. Suddenly from one side emerged a student known as Khalid Abbas Dar, who started walking next to the hippy. “I know English”, he said in his heavily accented English. Then Dar started reciting a well-known English essay titled: ‘A Cricket Match’, an essay everyone learns in school in Lahore. Probably still do. A surprised foreigner smiled and continued his walk. Students all around had a good laugh.

In this time and age probably no performer of the stage, on radio, on television and hosts of different shows has not been his ‘pupil’ or been influenced by his wit and sweep of knowledge. His ability to, as he says: “Restrain his wit and speech” is what makes him stand out. But if Khalid Abbas Dar is present definitely others do not matter much. He has the ‘final’ say, as much as he refuses to acknowledge it.

The writing of this piece was inspired by a video posted on a ‘special’ site by Saleema, the daughter of the poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, in which Dar was commenting in a special session to commemorate the passing away of the famous Shoaib Hashmi, who like Dar was the first and finest TV and stage director and performer, let alone a professor of economics.

In a way Shoaib Sahib, as we called him, was his ‘ustad’. But then so was Shoaib Sahib our ‘ustad’ in GC when we were studying for a Masters’ in Economics. He had just returned from England where he went for his PhD but returned with a degree in the theatre. Pakistan was the richer for that and his ‘Ak’kaar Bak’kar’ remains an everlasting classic.

This column is about “people, places, things and faces” as the great ‘Cosmos’ scientist Paul Sagan used to describe all creative writings and happenings. We have written about a few famous people, but certainly Khalid Abbas Dar deserves to be described and understood in this time and age. So here we go.

Khalid Abbas Dar belongs to the Kashmiri Dar clan or tribe. The original name was Dhar, which is a Kashmiri Brahmin clan who consider themselves superior to others. But the Jammu side of the clan called themselves ‘Dar’ – the ‘d’ adds a Punjabi slur to the name - and they were, religiously speaking, great scholars of the Quranic Arabic as well as classical Persian. In the same sweep their Hindu Dhar clansmen were Hindu scholars of Sanskrit as well as Persian. So in a way it was ingrained in them to do whatever they wished. The Sanskrit word ‘Dharra’ means the Almighty. But enough of unwanted praise.

Born in Lahore, Khalid Abbas’s father was Abdul Malik Dar, the Director of Sports of Islamia College, Lahore. But then Khalid Abbas Dar did not want to join his father’s college and insisted on joining Government College, Lahore. For him being a Ravian was more important. After passing his matriculation from Central Model School, he joined GC as a cricketer and his application says he was an ‘entertainer’.

Once admitted he concentrated on entertaining and performing, an activity his father just would accept. So Abdul Malik Dar managed to subtly remove Khalid Abbas from the family social circle. One understands – from a family source – that Khalid was accused of being a ‘Bha’and’ – an entertainer not a serious learned Dar.

In college Khalid Abbas was soon recognised as a classy entertainer, and almost every gathering had him contribute his comic and his serious understanding of life. In 1966 he applied to be granted a ‘GC Roll of Honour’ for “mimicry” of all things. This rare honour was denied as an outrageous request.

But Khalid Abbas convinced the famous psychologist Dr Muhammad Ajmal, that humour was a very serious part of life. How could Dr. Ajmal refuse, and hence the Principal the great Dr Nazir Ahmed, agreed. Never before and never since has anyone in the 160-plus years of Government College Lahore been awarded a ‘Roll of Honour’ for mimicry. Dar called it a ‘technical victory’.

In November 1964, the first TV station was inaugurated by the then ruler Gen. Ayub Khan. In the opening show Khalid Abbas Dar did a skit that left the military ruler in fits of laughter. It was a no-bar withholding skit without a script. But he said – humorously naturally - what others dared not. Since then the Pakistan Army loves to invite him to their special occasions. He won the ‘Best Entertainer’ award which was followed by a Presidential Pride of Performance Award in 1998-99, followed by a Sitara-i-Imtiaz in 2006-07 and then the highest Hilal-i-Imtiaz in 2013.

Over the years Khalid Abbas Dar has been recognised as not only a versatile actor, but also an entertainer, a mimic, a one-man stand-up comedian, a film star, an occasion host, a playwright, a director and theatre producer. So we see that from the 1964 President to the current President, Asif Ali Zardari, are all his ardent fans.

During the 1965 Pakistan-India War he rushed to entertain the tired soldiers on the front lines. One official estimate is that he entertained well over 500,000 soldiers and officials. He allegedly shouted a Punjabi joke across the battle line to a Sikh soldier, who laughed and spared him. While other artists like Mehdi Hassan, Ustad Amanat Ali, Fateh Ali Khan, Fareeda Khanum and Shaukat Ali were also part of this huge entertainment package, but it was always Khalid Abbas Dar who conducts such events for the Pakistan Army. On his appearance soldiers did then, as they do now, would stand up to clap … and laugh. In a way he remains a leading ‘soft image’ projecting persons.

For those who remember him, and follow him, among his better-known plays have been ‘Sadhran’, ‘Jazeera’, ‘Kahani Ki Talash’, ‘Zanjeer’, ‘Jheel’, ‘Fifty Fifty’, ‘Panchoon Ghee Mein’, ‘Shaadi Key Saath Saath’ and ‘Parchi’ to name just a few. During the February 1974 Islamic Summit Conference in Lahore, an event this writer covered for ‘The Pakistan Times’ newspaper of Lahore, Khalid Abbas Dar performed and had over 45 foreign Heads of State in raptures, speaking in English, Urdu, Punjabi, even spurts of Persian and Arabic, but all in a comic manner. When I met him later he commented: “Gosh, restraining myself was so difficult”.

Today Khalid Abbas Dar represents the front line of theatre in Pakistan. For almost 65 long years he has been entertaining the people, and his script is always fresh. On my father’s funeral he snatched the bed post and said: “He was also my father”. Such is the man and such is his freshness. May his reign continue.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2025