LAHORE — Pakistani actress Asma Abbas has disclosed intimate details about the personal life of her father, the celebrated writer and journalist Ahmad Bashir, including the story of his two marriages and a startling episode involving a fabricated divorce notice, during a recent podcast appearance.
A Reluctant First Marriage
According to Abbas, her father’s first marriage was arranged by his parents to a cousin. Ahmad Bashir, however, was reportedly unwilling to go through with the union and left to stay at a friend’s house following the wedding ceremony.
Abbas said that it was this same friend who later assisted her father in securing a divorce from his first wife.
Love, Anxiety and a Fabricated Notice
Ahmad Bashir subsequently married Abbas’s mother, also a relative, who became his second wife. The actress described her father as deeply devoted to her mother, saying he could not bear to live without her.
That devotion, she recalled, took a dramatic turn after the birth of their first child, Adeeba Neelam Bashir, when her mother went to stay at her parents’ home following the delivery.
According to Abbas, her father insisted that his wife return immediately, but she declined to come back at once. Ahmad Bashir then threatened her with divorce in an effort to frighten her — and even sent her a fake divorce notice.
The actress said her mother was so alarmed by the threat that she returned home at once, only to discover that the notice was not genuine.
A Family of Prominent Artists
Asma Abbas belongs to one of Pakistan’s most prominent entertainment families. Her sister Bushra Ansari is among the country’s leading artists, while her other sisters, Neelam Adeeba and Sumbul, were also actresses. Sumbul died in 2021 due to COVID-19.
Their father, Ahmad Bashir, was a renowned writer and journalist who held a distinguished place in Pakistan’s intellectual and literary circles.
