Light Within

Pakistan Armed Forces Monthly Hilal is a very popular magazine read by every one from Jawan to General. My own association with this esteemed publication started in 1977 when I was commissioned as a second lieutenant and posted to an artillery regiment in Lahore. Our commanding office Lt Col Ghafoor was to open our tree plantation drive by planting a sapling in the unit ground. He desired the event be covered for Hilal. I was the ‘baby of the unit’ so I was asked to do the needful. That is when I asked about Hilal. Our unit head clerk gave me a complete file of previous issues of Hilal to read and familiarize myself with the then weekly magazine.

It is in Hilal and my first article sajar kari (tree plantation) appeared. Mr. Iqbal (then editor Hilal) asked me to write more and I became regular contributer. I kept writing in Urdu during my service in artillery regiment as well as during my six years deputation in Inter Services Public Relations till I switched to writing in English and lost track. Recently one of my friends Hussan Qazi told me that Hilal has come a long way since the time I used to write there. Hilal now is an A class bilingual publication; content, paper, quality of printing and good media practices are in consonance with this information age and it covers a lot from civil military relations to tips (and announcements) about how to join armed forces and a whole lot in between. I am, once again writing in Hila.  Read some of my Hilal stories here.