Pak comedy show to launch Dubai chapter

Jamil Khan, Senior Reporter

“The United Arab Emirates, especially Dubai, is one of the unique places in the world that is home to a large number of Asian expatriates speaking two major languages such as Urdu and Punjabi. Our aim is to cater and entertain these two major demographic groups to produce a series of entertainment shows like ‘Khabar Har’ from Dubai.”

This was stated by prominent Pakistani TV host Aftab Iqbal at a press conference held in a local hotel in Dubai, where he announced the details of the launch of the Dubai chapter of his famous and long-running TV entertainment show.

The press conference was attended by his team and prominent businessman Shakeel Ahmad Meer and social and business figure Waleed Al Ali.

“We were planning for a long time to start our show ‘Khabar Har’ from outside Pakistan and now we finally associated with two of our partners in the UAE to start recording the 14 episodes, with the first from Dubai, second from London and third from Canada later this year,” he said.

The team of Khabar Har is on a world tour and Dubai was the first stop to record episodes to incorporate Pakistani and Indian expatriates as the audience. The show has been hosted by Aftab Iqbal for many years and moved from one TV channel to the other with different comedy artists across Pakistan.

“The Dubai chapter of Khabar Har under the theme of ‘Crossroads of Cultures’ will be a non-political and completely entertainment show for the Urdu and Punjabi-speaking audience,” he said.

The shows will be available on social media platforms like YouTube and Facebook. “We will be happy to associate with any local TV channels for a global audience,” he said.

The Dubai chapter was launched by UAE-based SWAG, a joint venture of chairman Shakeel Ahmad Meer and president Waleed Al Ali.

“Dubai is one of the best places to launch our global show and we are hopeful of providing quality entertainment to our audience who have been watching our shows on social media platforms,” Iqbal said.

Shakeel Ahmad Meer mentioned that UAE and especially Dubai is one of the best places in the world for investors to tap multiple opportunities for growth. “We are planning to bring ‘Khabar Har’ show as a global show and aimed to bring the show to the next level by incorporating artists from Dubai-based expatriate communities like Indians, Africans, Bangladesh and others,” he added.