Dar-e-Nijaat episode 1 recapZaryab's midnight drive to Zamil

The first episode opens in two homes. In Karachi, Zaryab wakes from a nightmare about Zamil, who has stopped answering her calls. Her grandmother Kishwar Jahan catches her saying his name at prayer time, and before dawn Zaryab drives across the city alone to find him.

Zamil is at a low point. His grades have collapsed and no university has taken him, while Zaryab holds a place at Harvard. She tells him she will wait, take a gap year or follow him anywhere, and he lets slip a remark about taking "a step" that leaves her shaken. At home her father Habib covers for her with a lie, which Kishwar sees through the next morning when she learns Zaryab came back at 4:30.

In Hyderabad we meet Abu Bakar, a devoted son caring for his mother Khushbakht on the anniversary of her father's death. He reads to her, offers to become a Hafiz if she wishes, and is quietly unsettled when a girl he does not know starts calling his mother's number.

As plans for her sister Faryal's wedding begin, Zaryab announces she will not go to Harvard, and Kishwar starts the guest list. The first card goes to Khushbakht, and it is Abu Bakar who answers the phone. The episode ends on Kishwar's wish that she could have arranged Zaryab's marriage with Abu Bakar.