Another seasoned Pashto comedian set to quit showbiz

PESHAWAR: Prominent Pashto comedian Ismail Shahid is next in the line to say goodbye to his acting career and search for another source of income for feeding his family, allegedly after threats from “unknown quarters”.

Ismail Shahid is expected to announce quitting his profession as TV, stage and CD artiste. A couple of days back, his long-time companion Said Rahman Shino said he would soon bid farewell to the profession and start earning his livelihood from other sources.

“Besides family pressure, I am fed up with acting that could not give me an honourable and satisfactory livelihood,” Shino said. Though he cited personal reasons for quitting the profession, but his fans say threats from militants forced him to change the profession.

Ismail Shahid is to part ways with his artiste colleagues as he is said to have decided to quit once his ongoing projects are completed.

Ismail and Shino are the top Pashto comedians most popular among the viewers. They have been working jointly in almost all the comedy shows and dramas since a long time. They have a unique ascent a style of dialogue delivery and a great sense of humour, which compels viewers on remaining glue to duo’s stage, TV shows or television and CD dramas. Ismail and Shino’s quitting the profession would be a great loss to Pashto culture that would deprive viewers of lively comedy and expressive dialogues, but lead to production of sub-standard programmes.

Many of the singers and artistes have either quit the profession or left the province. Noted comedians Mirawas and Alamzeb Mujahid, singers Haroon Bacha, Gulzar Alam, Kefayat Bacha have been forced to leave the profession. Sardar Yousafzai, another singer narrowly escaped a life attempt while the harmonium player in his orchestra was killed in the attack.