Where Memory Holds Time-Zabir Saeed Badar
Where Memory Holds Time Sahibzada Zabir Saeed Badar It was a moment of collective surprise. Why was the Raees-e-Azam of Lahore, Quaid-e-Azam’s close companion and a key leader of the Pakistan Movement, Mian Bashir Ahmad, visiting our humble hostel? A little inquiry revealed he had come to see a junior, Saeed Badar. We were astonished—what was it about this soft-spoken boy that had drawn such a distinguished guest? We, the admirers of Urdu literature, sat in awe as Mian Bashir Ahmad, scion of the illustrious Mian family of Baghbanpura, the poet of “Millat ka Pasban hai Muhammad Ali Jinnah,” quietly waited for this junior of ours on a bench instead of the principal’s office. Saeed Badar, in our eyes, was instantly transformed into someone extraordinary. Years later, when historian and Iqbal scholar Dr. Muhammad Ikram Chughtai narrated this incident to me, I felt a surge of pride—because Saeed Badar was my father. It has been three years since he passed away, yet I still feel him be...