Zamil is a man controlled by his insecurities. Everything he has been shown to do arises from his own internal complexes and insecurities. Sadly, the drama has not shown us why these were created—was it his parents? Was he bullied in school as a child? What was it? Add this to his selfishness, and you have a completely toxic character like Zamil.
From day one, Zaryab has been boosting his ego, diminishing her own achievements just to make him feel better. He has been in constant conflict with himself and with Zaryab. While he loves Zaryab, her success and her wins in life started taking a toll on him.
He represents all those men who need to feel good about themselves, and for that, they will do anything—those who want to blame others for their own failures and the challenges they face. They will never take ownership of their own actions.
The drama very subtly and sensitively shows what happens when religion is used to make oneself feel superior. The fact remains that, sadly, this is one side of practicing Islam where the practitioners often become arrogant and judgmental. The same happened with Zamil.
He knew Zaryab would never follow him blindly, and that gave his mind the perfect way to feel better about himself while judging Zaryab, thinking she is the one who is wrong and he is on the righteous path—totally forgetting that he cheated on her, left her alone, and never even provided a justification or explained his decisions to her. Instead, he just vanished from her life, putting her through immense pain. His reasoning that “I am following Islam while she is not” made him feel better about himself.
His marriage to Hamna is further proof of this. He feels better that he helped a poor girl; she is obedient and does not belong to the same social class as him, so he will always feel superior, and his ego will always get a boost. Most importantly, he thinks he has asked for forgiveness from Allah for what he did wrong and is now spending a life of purity with his wife in nikah, totally forgetting how he has deeply hurt Zaryab.
Zamil is a brilliantly penned character, though his evolution and the turmoil of his thoughts needed better execution and representation in the drama. We never understood why he turned to religion or what caused his insecurities.
