He made an impassioned appeal to the people of Lahore for contributions for the refugees. Mr Taj at that time was writing and broadcasting a daily programme called ‘Pakistan Hamara Hae’ (Pakistan is ours). When their needs went beyond the resources of the district administration, Syed Imtiaz Ali Taj was requested by the deputy commissioner to make a public appeal for contribution of materials. At the time of partition, there was a huge influx of refugees coming to Walton Camp. The most distinguished broadcaster of those times, Syed Imtiaz Ali Taj, was indeed in Lahore and that all time resonant voice of Mohini Das (later Mohini Hamid) kept audiences glued to radio. These included Akhlaq Ahmed Dehlvi, S M Salim, Amir Khan and others.
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Almost all great broadcasters from India, particularly from All India Radio, Delhi, arrived in Lahore and worked for some time here. A great deal of research and training preceded any broadcaster before he reached the microphone. A word broadcast from these was the standard of diction and pronunciation. The radio station at Lahore and the radio station at Peshawar were the oldest stations and existed before independence. Radio Pakistan was located in a bungalow owned by Sir Fazle Hussain near Simla Hill on the road turning towards the Governor’s House in Lahore. Mustafa Ali Hamadani’s announcement immortalised him and sent an electric wave through all the people who officially heard the name ‘Pakistan’ for the first time. “Yeh Radio Pakistan hae….” It was the voice of Syed Mustafa Ali Hamadani, the duty announcer at the Radio Station in Lahore. Then midnight…12 o’clock…the zero hour arrived, and we heard the announcement. All India Radio being the only means of communication, millions of people were glued to their radio sets. The promised independence to Pakistan and India was to be effective at the zero hour between August 14 and 15, 1947.
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An announcement by the British was expected any time. Those who have lived in those times would remember that the suspense of the partition of the Indian subcontinent and the consequences of it were already occupying everyone’s mind months earlier. It was the zero hour between the night of August 14 and August 15, 1947, which is the most significant moment in the history of this subcontinent.