Haseena Moin
حسینہ معین
Born	(1941-11-20)20 November 1941 Kanpur,United Provinces,British India
Died	26 March 2021(2021-03-26) (aged 79)[1] Karachi,Sindh,Pakistan
Other names	Haseena Apa
Alma mater	Government College for Women,Karachi University
Occupation(s)	Screenwriter, playwright, writer,educationist,principal in Fazal-ur-Rehman Govt Girls Secondary School
Years active	1970–2021
Awards	Pride of Performance Award by thePresident of Pakistan in 1987

Haseena Moin (Urdu:حسینہ معین) (20 November 1941 – 26 March 2021) was a Pakistani dramatist, playwright andscriptwriter. She wrote several plays for stage,radio, andtelevision. She was the recipient of thePride of Performance award for her services to theperforming arts in Pakistan. She wrote Pakistan Television's first original scriptKiran Kahani aired in the early 1970s.PTV had previously relied upon novel-based scripts for its dramas. She was considered to be the best Urdu playwright and dramatist Pakistan has ever witnessed.^[2][3][4]

Some of the dramas she wrote includeAnkahi,Tanhaiyaan,Kiran Kahani,Dhoop Kinaray,Aahat,Uncle Urfi,Shehzori,Kohar,Des Pardes,Pal Do Pal,Aansoo,Kasak,Parchaiyan andParosi. Other works includeMere Dard ko Jo Zuban Milay,Kaisa Yeh Junoon,Dhundle Raste,Shayad ke Bahar Aaye,Mohim Joo,Tum Se Mil Kar,Bandish andZair, Zabar, Pesh.^[5]

Moin was born inKanpur on 20 November 1941.^[6] She received her early education in her ancestral region and, after theindependence of Pakistan in 1947, migrated with her family to Pakistan. She lived for a number of years inRawalpindi, then moved toLahore and, in the 1950s, settled inKarachi, where she graduated from the Government College for Women in 1960 and earned herMaster of Arts in History fromKarachi University in 1963. Her yearning for writing was visible right from the time she was in the final years of her schooling, as from 7th standard, beside other school activities she got selected to write a weekly column by the title of BHAI JAN for a local journal.

She wrote plays forRadio Pakistan Karachi's "Studio Number 9." Professionally, she took up the educational pursuits and started teaching. She rose to the level of Principal. It was in 1969 that Iftikhar Arif, Head of the Script Dept. atPTV-Karachi Centre, called Moin and offered her the chance to write a play for the then-forthcoming EID. Initially, Moin was nervous but took courage to pen down a play. The cast was also decided by her with Kunwar Aftab Ahmed as the director. Hence cameEid Ka Jora with Neelofer Aleem and Talat Hussain in the lead, supported by Khalid Nizami and Ishrat Hashmi.

Most of the plays of PTV likeShehzori,Zair, Zabar, Pesh,Uncle Urfi,Ankahi,Tanhaiyaan,Parchaieyen,Bandish,Dhund,Dhoop Kinarey,Aahat,Kasak,Pal Do Pal andTere Ajane Se were written by her. Her playGurya which was directed by Shirin Khan with cast members Manzoor Qureshi, Shahla Ahmad Bina ofUncle Urfi,Azra Sherwani and Raju Jamil, won an award at the Global TV Plays Festival in Tokyo for best script and direction. She was the writer of the first coloured drama of Pakistan, aired on PTV calledParchaiyan, which was directed byMohsin Ali.

She also wrote Pakistan's first original script 'Kiran Kahani' aired in the early-1970s. Before this, PTV used to rely on novel-based scripts. Most of the people at that time were not confident with the experiment but it was Mohsin Ali who encouraged her to write it. It starred Roohi Bano in the lead with Manzoor Qureshi, Begum Khursheed Mirza,Qazi Wajid and many more.

Her drama serialDhoop Kinare aired in 1987. A loosely based remake of the series was later made in India by the name ofKuch Toh Log Kahenge and it aired from 2011 to 2013. It was re-written by popular Indian writer Kamlesh Pandey, who stated that by remaking this play he had paid tribute to Haseena Moin.^[7][8] EvenTanhaiyan was quite popular. These shows are still remembered amongst the Indian masses.^[9] She wrote a play for India calledTanha, which became widely popular during its run. She also wrote a play forDoordarshan calledKash-m-kash, Arshad Mahmood composed and Tina Sani sang the title song of the play.^[10]

Moin wrote the script for the 1978 filmYahan Se Wahan Tak, starringWaheed Murad. The film was produced and directed bySyed Kamal. She also wrote the dialogues for the 1986 filmNazdekiyan which was directed byUsman Peerzada, starringSamina Peerzada and Usman Peerzada. The film was acclaimed and won prestigious national awards.^[11]

In 1998, Moin wroteKahin Pyar Na Ho Jaye. The film was directed byJaved Sheikh and the cast includedResham,Shaan andSaleem Sheikh. Before release, the film was heavily hyped and was expected to be a success but eventually could not perform well at the box office.^[12][13]

Moin was the first Pakistani writer to write for aBollywood film.Raj Kapoor wanted her to write the dialogues for his dream projectHenna, which was released in 1991. He wanted Hina Durrani to be the lead heroine inHenna after meeting her inIndia during her visit with her motherNoor Jehan in 1982 but she refused then he wanted to castShehnaz Sheikh in the title role of the film but after she refused, Haseena Moin recommendedZeba Bakhtiar as the leading lady, thus Zeba was cast in the title role ofHenna.^[14][15] The film was a box office success and was also chosen as India's entry for theBest Foreign Language Film at theOscars.^[16][17]

Initially she was hesitant to write for a Bollywood film. During the pre-production stages Raj Kapoor died and the project was taken over by his sonRandhir Kapoor. But when the film was about to be released, theBabri Mosque incident broke out and Moin wrote a letter to Randhir Kapoor in which she requested that her name should not be used to promote the film and neither should her name be mentioned in the credits as it may hurt her fans in Pakistan, thus her name was not mentioned in the credits nor was the film was promoted using her name but she was acknowledged at the end of the film. Although this incident brought a lot of loss to her, she stated in an interview that "she can do any thing for her country and sacrificing a film was very little thing for her she could also give her life for her country".^[18][19]

Moin wrote different types of drama.^{[citation needed]} She has written comedies likeShehzori,Uncle Urfi,Tanhaiyaan with best comic characters in her plays, like Mamoo, Timmy and Moby inAnkahi; Qabacha, Bukrad and Aapa Begum inTanhaiyan, Gazi Apa inUncle Urfi to tragedies likeParchaiyaan. From romantic dramas likeDhoop Kinaray,Ankahi,Kohar to family dramas likeAansoo, she has also written several plays based on social issues like the super hitAahat. It was based on family planning and was directed by Sahira Kazmi. Her playDes Pardes was based on the lives of people living in Scotland and the problems they have to face.Chup Darya, a telefilm starring Sania Saeed, was based on Karachi's conditions, andShayad ke Bahar Aye was based on women's rights. She has also written historic plays likeTansen,Meray Dard ko jo Zuban Mile, and the recentAnjaane Nagar. Her other plays includeParosi,Pal do Pal,Kasak based on the life of a single parent,Dhundle Raaste and many more.^[20][21]

Many of Moin's plays have been directed by Mohsin Ali. Starting from her first play Shehzori to Mohsin's last play Ik Naye Morr Pe, they had worked together in more than 10 plays. Other directors with whom Moin had repeatedly worked include Shoaib Mansoor (his debut play Ankahi and the long play Dhundle Raaste), Sahira Kazmi (she directed Haseena's two plays Dhoop Kinare and Aahat and she directed her first play Choti Choti Baatein which was also written by Moin. Sahira also acted in Haseena's Parchaiyan, M Zaheer Khan (he directed several episodes of Zer Zabar Pesh), he also directed Kohar, Aania and the remake of Kiran Kahani. Shirin Khan directed some early plays of Moin which include Uncle Urfi, Zer Zabar Pesh, Kiran Kahani and Gurya, Raana Sheikh (she directed Parosi, Shayad ke Bahar Aye and Kaisa Yeh Junoon), Ali Rizvi (he directed the Aansoo and Des Pardes as well as Meray Dard Ko Jo Zuban Mile).^[22]

Her drama serialSaare Mausam Apne Hain aired onGeo TV in late 2012. The drama was directed by Ali Rizvi.^[23]Meri Behan Maya, another play by Moin, also aired from 17 September 2012 to 11 January 2013 onGeo TV. It was directed by Azfer Ali. The play was well-received and Annie Jafry was appreciated for her performance as Maya.^[24]

In 2012, a sequel to one of her most popular drama serials,Tanhaiyaan was produced.Tanhaiyan Naye Silsilay aired from 20 October 2012 to 19 January 2013 onPTV andARY Digital simultaneously. Moin wrote the first 7 episodes and then had to go abroad, so she allowed Mohammad Ahmed to write the rest of the episodes, with a plan to write the final episode when she returned. But by the time she returned, the entire serial was written and many changes were made to the episodes she had previously completed. She was disappointed and asked the producers to remove her name from the serial, but due to copyright issues her name could not be removed. Moin has said she had nothing to do withNaye Silsilay and was very disappointed by the outcome.^[25][26]

A serial titledAnjaane Nagar started airing on TV ONE from May 2013. It was a period play set in 1939 and was shot at beautiful locations inMurree and the Northern Areas. It was directed by veteran director Khawaja Najam ul Hassan. It received critical acclaim upon its release.^[27]

An Eid telefilm titledOoper Gori Ka Makaan aired fromExpress Entertainment in 2013. The telefilm was a romantic comedy and was directed by Yasir Nawaz. The cast included Neelam Munir and Junaid Khan in the lead roles.^{[citation needed]}

Her serialMohabbat Ho Gai Tumse, a story of four friends aired from TV ONE in August 2015. It was directed by the channel's chairperson Seema Taher Khan and starred Adnan Siddiqui, Deeba Naz, Zhalay Sarhadi, Azfer Rehman and Hira Tareen in lead roles.^{[citation needed]}

Moin visited won thePride of Performance Award in 1987 for her services to the performing arts in Pakistan.^[28][29][5] It is one of the highest civil awards conferred by the Pakistan Government. She had won many other awards including the Woman of the Year award. In 1975 she also won an award at the Global TV Plays Festival in Tokyo for best script and direction for her play Gurya. She had won accolades at nearly every year's Lux Style Awards as well asPTV Awards, during the late 1980s Moin Akhtar gave a tribute to her at a PTV awards ceremony. She had also appeared in many talk shows such as Anwar Maqsood's LG TV SHOW and Marina Mornings and many other numerous morning shows and chat shows. Most recently she appeared in The Big Show on CNBC alongside another legendary writerFatima Surayya Bajia.^[30][31]

With the increasing popularity ofImran Khan's political partyPakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf many famous people including Haseena Moin had joined this political party.^[32][33]

Moin died on 26 March 2021 at the age of 79 inKarachi. She had been battling cancer for the past few years, however, the immediate cause of her death has not been revealed. She was last spotted in Karachi Arts Council on 22 March 2021 when she got her first Corona vaccine, just 4 days before her death. As mentioned in the local newspaperThe News,^[34] she shared her experience with the fans, saying “I have just got the coronavirus vaccine. I want to tell everyone it’s not painful at all”. Her funeral prayers were held on Friday, in the area of North Nazimabad inKarachi.^[29][28][35]

• as Begum Hasina Moin atIMDb

• 1941 births
• 2021 deaths
• Pakistani radio writers
• Pakistani television writers
• Pakistani women screenwriters
• Women television writers
• Writers from Kanpur
• Muhajir people
• Pakistani dramatists and playwrights
• Pakistani women dramatists and playwrights
• University of Karachi alumni
• 20th-century Pakistani women writers
• PTV Award winners
• 21st-century Pakistani women writers
• Recipients of the Pride of Performance
• Writers from Karachi
• Women radio writers
• 20th-century Pakistani screenwriters
• 21st-century screenwriters

• CS1: unfit URL
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use British English from August 2014
• All Wikipedia articles written in British English
• Use dmy dates from February 2020
• Articles with hCards
• Pages using infobox person with deprecated parameters
• Articles containing Urdu-language text
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from August 2022