Pakistani population is divided in different ethnic groups such as Punjabi, Sindhi, Balouchi, and Pashtu and it is home to many dozens of languages spoken as first languages The entertainment media of any country represents its social and cultural values.
TV Dramas
TV dramas are one of those marvels of modern media that have revolutionized the life of every man and women and even children try to find their life styles in these TV plays. Dramas in Pakistan started from the foundation of Pakistan television in 1964. The dramas that were shown back then are still remembered to this day. Those dramas represented every culture of Pakistan in a way that all age segments could relate to. But then unfortunately with the expansion of television channels, true essence of cultural depiction diluted. This is when Khyber tv decided to step in the market because rest of the channel were influenced by our neighbouring countries dramas. Our channels were showing the culture that not only non Pakistanis, but even the Pakistani masses couldn’t relate to. Khyber tv took into consideration the fact that five languages have more than ten million speakers each in Pakistan: Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi, Saraiki and Urdu Khyber tv dared to touch the social issues of Pakhtoon community so as to create an awareness along with educating them regarding different stereotypes associated with this ethnic group. We will be discussing some dramas of Khyber TV that:
- Promoted artistic education
- Gender balance sensitization
- Youth development
- Women empowerment
- Fight against drug abuse
- Reinforce and promote unity and reconciliation
KUNDA JINE:
This drama of khyber tv is all about Women empowerment. It revolves around an old woman who becomes a widow and her struggles for survival.
ARMAN:
Another khyber tv’s drama that highlights the much talked about topic ie Domestic Violence. It stars a legend Firdous Jamal. Drama beautifully portrays family lineage showing different generations living together.
Specially after 9/11 there was a forcing need to promote the culture of peace and show the world our true, colourful and rich culture to overshadow the terrorist labelled tag west had wrongly perceived about Pakistan. To change this game of perceptions, Khyber tv made serious efforts to produce dramas along with the change in their programming scheme. A few notable dramas include:
AFTER THE BLAST:
This emotional roller coaster drama starts with the ticket checker who dies in an unfortunate train blast leaving behind his sick wife, a jobless son and a daughter. Son strives hard to get a job in order to meet the ends but fails. Daughter eventually ends up getting astray from the right path. This aspect shows another dilemma of our society where girls have no option other than opting for the unethical means. Late ticket checker son, desperate of finding a job ends up meeting a terrorist who offers him a handsome amount of money in exchange of taking a suitcase to a specific place. This drama has magnificently captured the emotions and the tragedy family of a deceased soul has to go through.
ALLAH O AKBAR:
Another effort in this regard was the Khyber tv’s drama Allah o Akbar. Story revolves around a school teacher who was held captive by the terrorists and how he starts teaching and preaching them the actual message of God Almighty. This drama is inspired by real events.
RUKA VARA:
Another production to change the mindset of extremists by Khyber tv. Story is a travel journey of a passenger in taxi from Lahore to Islamabad. On they way driver and passenger share their stories and eventually after reaching the destination, terrorist decides to call off his plan.
SWARAH:
Another beautiful production of Khyber tv is drama serial Sarah that focuses on another important social issues of girls getting married off to Quran. This yet again is a sensitive topic and involves people sentiments. Khyber tv gained a lot of appreciation and applause for covering this topic in a way that it created awareness and education.
ROKA LARA:
Khyber tv produced this drama that highlights yet another prevailing social issue of human rights violation and discrimination on the basis of gender identity in Pakistan. Roka Lara depicts how transgender people face harassment, mistreatment and exclusion from society. And How an astrayed transgender tries to financially support his family.
CHAN GALA:
This drama of Khyber tv was to create awareness regarding another important issue that people of rural area specifically face a lot. They think paper marriage is a short cut to get a green card and eventually their life would be settled after moving abroad. Khyber’s team went to Thailand and Bangkok for this shoot.
ALWAT:
Talking about current statistics, about 3.3 million of Pakistani children are trapped in child labour, depriving them of their childhood, health and education and condemning them to a life of poverty and want (Reference: UNICEF Pakistan).
This drama revolves around a child mechanic with big dreams of getting rich one day. And gives a message in the end that everything is possible if you have a will for it.
