ISLAMABAD, March 29: Former prime minister and Pakistan People’s Party Chairperson Benazir Bhutto on Wednesday congratulated the World Punjabi Congress (WPC) chairman, Fakhar Zaman, for arranging an international conference on renowned Sufi poet Shah Hussain and appreciated his decision to hold international moots on Sufi poets from other provinces like Shah Latif Bhitai from Sindh, Rehman Baba from NWFP and Mast Tawakkali from Balochistan.

In a message, Ms Bhutto said that these meets would definitely lead to national integration that was need of the hour.

“Sufi poets, as I said in my message to the Waris Shah International Conference held last July, serve as a beacon light for the lost people to determine their directions towards the culture of tolerance and self-abnegation and an incessant struggle against the forces of obscurantism, extremism and religious bigotry.

“In Pakistan of today, we are in a dire necessity of adopting the Sufi message of love and humanism in order to combat the growing menace of dehumanisation, brutalisation, ethnicity and parochialism.

“Shah Hussain’s poetry is rich in symbolism and imagery embedded in the cultural ethos of Punjab. His struggle against the imperialists of the 16th century (Mughal Empire of Akbar) in cooperation with Punjabi hero Dulla Bhatti, who was hanged in Lahore, has left an indelible mark of heroism on the history of the subcontinent,” she said.

She said Shah Hussain’s symbol of spinning wheel (Charkha) was a magnificent metaphor for the whole life process. His Kafis set on Raagas are on the lips of a large populace of Pakistan, she added.