The man revered as the the founding father of Pakistan Television, Aslam Azhar, passed away on December 30, 2015 at the age of 83 succumbing to the after effects of his surgery last month. Born in 1932, Azhar received his Bachelor’s degree from Government College Lahore and went on to complete his Masters in Law from Cambridge University. Although he had certain outstanding performances in theatre during his academic years, it was not until 1960 that he joined the Department of Films and Publications in Karachi, making documentaries as a freelancer. Soon he decided to pursue his passion, and with his talented group began the Karachi Arts Theatre Society, which gained widespread fame. Here he also met his wife, Nasreen Azhar, currently a human rights activist. In such a short time, Azhar had garnered enormous recognition as a theatre virtuoso and was ferently sought to take the lead in a three-month pilot to set up Pakistan’s first television station in Lahore, which became a success as a result of Azhar’s mastery and zeal. Soon he gathered a brilliant team of writers, including Anwar Sajjad, Bano Qudsia and Ashfaque Ahmed, as well as designers, artists and cameramen and so began what is till now remembered as the golden era of PTV. Not only did he take PTV from what began in the lawns of Radio Pakistan and ran in black in white three hours a day to a massive broadcaster setting up stations across the country in Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta but under him some of PTV’s most memorable productions, including ‘Khuda ki Basti’ and ‘Ru Baru’ were made. In recognition of his tremendous services, he was awarded Tamgha-i-Imtiaz in 1968. His other initiatives include the first PTV award ceremony, Music 89, transmissions on the 1970 elections and the Islamic Summit in Pakistan. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto also assigned him as the head of PTV Academy and later on Benazir Bhutto appointed him as the chairman of both Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation and PTV. The ubiquitous veneration for him that reverberates throughout the country on his death is not only the result of his career accomplishments and his immense talent, but exhibit the esteem in which he is held as a man dedicated to the cause of nurturing and establishing a place for theatre and the arts in Pakistan. He is lionized for his imperishable honesty and integrity, and under his tutelage the most progressive productions and the most talented artists in the country’s history gained ground. Azhar, an artist reminiscent of a more cultured age in Pakistan, also expressed dismay at the consumerism that has become the bane of television in this age in an interview in 2011. Unfortunately, today there are very few people like him who would go to the lengths he did to promote an enlightened form of the arts, as the actor, writer, producer and intellectual that he was, his legacy cannot be forgotten. *