Khuda Ki Basti (novel)

Khuda Ki Bas ti (Urdu: خدا کی بستی‎) is an Urdu novel written by Shaukat Siddiqui.

A modern classic of Urdu literature by Shaukat Siddiqui, Khuda Ki Basti (God's Own Land), takes place during the 1950s in the slums of Karachi and Lahore in a newly independent Pakistan. The story revolves around a poor, respectable family which has fallen on hard times. Corruption and degradation take over their lives. Jobless, and without any real hope of a better life, they find themselves in the clutches of unprincipled entrepreneurs who exploit them. The tragic, deeply moving finale is inevitable.

Khuda Ki Basti was adapted as a serial produced by Pakistan Television in 1969 and 1974. In 1974, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto directed re-telecast of Khuda Ki Basti as it was Bhutto’s favorite serial and mass appeal and message. But the Pakistan Television had problems as the video tape recordings of KKB on spool in 1969 had long been erased due to their scarcity and re-recording of other programs. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto insisted that the serial must be re-telecast even if fresh recording is essential hence the entire cast.

The 1974 version of re-recorded Khuda Ki Basti was 50-minute episodes which lasted 13 weeks and created the same impact that the 1969 version did. It was Khuda Ki Basti and nothing for the viewers. Bakhtiar and Qasim Jalali did a fine job. This time the entire serial has been well maintained by Pakistan Television with a repeat telecast in 1990 which termed the adaptation of Shaukat Siddiqui’s novel Khuda Ki Basti as “Mother of All Serials” at Pakistan Television Corporation.

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