Daily Times

The recently concluded (Nov 16-18) Faiz International Festival at Alhamra Arts Council was a tribute for the great revolutionary poet. As Secretary of the Pakistan Arts Council in the fifties, Faiz Sahib played a pivotal role in the formative years of the great institution of art. On December 10, 1949 Khawaja Nazim Uddin the Governor General inaugurated the Council located at 68 Mall Road Lahore. The famous play writer Syed Imtiaz Ali Taj was appointed as the first Secretary and on his transfer to Majlis-e-Taraqqi-e-Adab, Faiz Sahib was appointed in his place. An Italian architect by the name of Mario Messina was inducted to prepare a sketch of a new building. It was here that the revolutionary poet and journalist came into direct public contact.

The glorious complex of the Arts Council as it stands today was designed by another son of Lahore, Architect Nayyar Ali Dada who lived in the Nila Gumbad area and was educated at the National College of Arts located at the other end of Mall Road. Muhammad Hanif Ramay as Bhutto’s outstanding Chief Minister spearheaded the project of building art councils all over the province. Like Faiz Sahib, Ramay was a progressive journalist, writer and artist. As a tribute to this great political leader his Namaz-e-Janaza was offered at the Arts Council Complex in 2006, to be later buried at DHA graveyard where he lived and painted. The Alhamra Arts Council is the right place to revive progressive politics in the country. The call was given by Comrade Asim Sajjad during the international festival.

Currently a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) delegation headed by the Secretary General Arshad Dad is visiting China to understand their model of development. Hopefully some useful ideas will be picked up and then implemented for the uplifting of the masses. As a country we slipped from the progressive politics of the seventies to the retrogressive stagnation of the last forty years (1977 to 2017). Faiz Sahib left the country in 1979, in disgust after the judicial murder of Bhutto to settle in Beirut where he lived till 1984, finally moving back to Lahore, where he died on November 20 of the same year.

2018 elections, raised the hope of the nation. It seems that Zia’s dark ages are finally coming to an end with its political players in retreat. Only the elected political leadership can take the country forward. In the fifties the progressives were hounded and punished. Faiz Sahib was arrested in 1951, Rawalpindi conspiracy case and his Communist Party was banned by Liaquat Ali Khan. In the late seventies and eighties, the progressives were surgically annihilated by the third dictator from which they have not recovered. Most of them left politics to join NGOs to socially uplift the masses.

By the next elections in 1977, Bhutto got rid of the progressives to surround himself with status-quo politicians. After his fall the progressives tried to re-organize to save the country from the retrogressive politics of the third dictator. The entire state apparatus was used to crush them. The dungeons of the Lahore Fort were used to torture and neutralize comrades of change

The well attended Faiz Festival has re-ignited the progressive political thought in the country. Today, the nation is looking on the other side of the Great Wall for guidance and hand holding. The China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) under the Belt and Road initiative of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is poised to transform the entire region. After decades of darkness, the light at the end of the tunnel is visible. All eyes are focused on the deep-sea port of Gwadar and its connecting communicational network.

In the changed political scenario of the country, progressive political leadership is the need of the nation. The progressive writers’ movement of which Faiz Sahib was a founder played an important role in shaping the progressive thought in the new country. Several big names were introduced who dominated the intellectual arena. Habib Jalib, Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi, Munir Niazi, Ahmed Faraz, Ehsan Danish and Dr. Saleem Wahid Saleem to name a few. The November 7, 1968, uprising against the first dictator was influenced by this progressive thought.

Bhutto benefited from this movement. Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) won big in the 1970 electoral contest because of its socialist manifesto. Stalwarts like Dr Mubashir Hasan and Sheikh Rashid (Baba-e-Socialism) won their elections with a big margin. By the next elections in 1977, Bhutto got rid of the progressives to surround himself with status-quo politicians. After his fall the progressives tried to re-organize to save the country from the retrogressive politics of the third dictator. The entire state apparatus was used to crush them. The dungeons of the Lahore Fort were used to torture and neutralize comrades of change.

The fall of Soviet Union was a big blow to the progressive movement. Capitalism took control of the world economy as a result the rich have become richer while the poor struggle to survive. Someone has to hold their hand to pull them out of their deprivation as China has done. Faiz suffered because his thoughts were ahead of his time. His imprisonment could not dampen his will. Karl Marx said, “workers of the world unite, they have nothing to lose except their chains”. In the 18th year of a barren 21st century it is time for the ‘progressives to unite’ to bring the much-needed change in the retrogressive Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

History is written all over the 8.6 km long strip of the Mall Road Lahore. Bhutto launched his People’s Party at the YMCA Hall in 1967, Farooq Leghari and Imran Khan launched their parties here in 1996. Bhutto was also sentenced here and had expressed his desire to be buried in the Leningrad (St Petersburg) of Pakistan. We the children of the Mall (Imran Khan — PM, Saqib Nisar — CJP, Tariq Bajwa, Governor State Bank and may more) have witnessed the rise and fall of our homeland in our lifetime. Genuine progressive leadership can reverse the spreading rot. Legacy of Faiz and Ramay lives on. Alhamra Arts Council is alive again, on the other end of the Mall only Pak Tea House has survived, its intellectual discourse has to be revived which can then act as an incubator of the much-needed change. Days of status-quo and its defendants are now numbered.

The Writer is the Ex-Chairman of Pakistan Science Foundation. He can be reached at fmaliks@hotmail.com

Published in Daily Times, December 2^nd 2018.