Pakistan’s acting legend, Moin Akhtar, is no more. He died today in Karachi at the age of 60. May Allah rest his soul in peace and grant patience to his family and fans to bear this loss. It would be fair to say that his acting career has closely run in tandem with the television industry of Pakistan especially the golden era of PTV.

My earliest memory of his great skills were in the Showtime program in which he teamed up with Anwar Maqsood, Bushra Ansari and Behroz Sabzwari to do numerous skits and get ups. This team repeated numerous times to entertain us. His mimicking of Zia Mohiuddin in the 1986 PTV Awards was legendary and so was the long play, Eid Train. It would be fair to say 1990 to 1994 were his peak years. The infamous Studio Dhai, long play Rozee, amazing Studio Ponay Teen and Half Plate were his excellent programs. I have the fondest memories of Studio Ponay Teen in 1993, so much so that I recorded all 13 episodes of the shows.

He was an amazing stage actor as well. His role in Bakra Qiston Pay with Omar Sharif was legendary too.

In later years his partnership with Anwar Maqsood in Loose Talk on ARY Digital would leave me in splits of laughter. In a show, he played the role of a Bengali Cricketer returning after the 2003 tour of Pakistan. If you see this whole program, you will not survive the stomach splitting laughters. I am inserting the relevant clip here:

Moin Akhtar’s loss is irreparable for his fans and Pakistan’s Television. In all honesty, without him PTV would not have been the same. His eldest son, Mansoor, was a year senior to me in school. He was a ditto copy of his father and always hearty. My personal condolences to him.

A clip of Eid Train can be seen here:

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