February 14, 2007	Wednesday	Muharram 25, 1428

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 13: A galaxy of intellectuals, writers, social and human rights activists and admirers of Faiz Ahmed Faiz gathered at the NIC auditorium here on Tuesday evening to commemorate his 96th birth anniversary.

Paying tribute to the great poet, speakers recited his poems portraying the struggle of working class against exploitation and demeaning of human dignity.

The call for unity of working class people, peasants and all progressive forces for the common cause reverberated in a string of poems recited at the function.

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Director I. A. Rahman, who was the chief guest, spoke on a number of aspects of Faiz’s personality, and said the poet liked much to train labourers in taking forward their struggle and to bring their exploitation to an end.

Faiz’s personality had many dimensions — he was a man of culture, journalist and teacher. But in every role he showed intense revulsion against a person languishing in slavery of another man, tutelage and against the imperialism and neo-cons. For this reason, Faiz wanted the working class to remain united and committed to their party.

Mr Rahman said Faiz believed in love and sharing of grief between men. But he also had strong feelings for class struggle and commitment to the working class party’s ideology.

The poet’s greatest wish was to bring a spark to the life of the working class and refuse to carry out impossible tasks detrimental to man’s dignity and honour”, the human rights activist said.

The evening was enlivened by the recital of a number of Faiz’s poems by a number of intellectuals and scholars like Aslam Azhar, Iftikhar Arif, Harris Khaleeque and Afshan.

Well-known broadcaster Agha Nasir read a section from his forthcoming book on Faiz, one written after the execution of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and an earlier poem written on the death of Hasan Nasir, grandson of Nawab Mohsinul Mulk, who was tortured to death at the Lahore Fort.

Kishwar Naheed read passages from her latest book about Faiz and said though young, she received affection from the great poet who was gifted with a large heart.

Asim Sajjad of the Peoples Rights Movement tried to establish a relationship between Faiz’s poems and the current political situation. He looked back to the days of the end of the cold war. People were then thinking that the class struggle had come to an end but history had proved that wrong.

“We are now living under the worst kind of injustices and the labourers and working class now feel the need to renew their struggle against imperialism, and for regaining their basic rights.”

He said the Sindhi fisherfolk were facing big commercial sharks, the residents of Saidpur were being dispossessed from their homes in the guise of development.

Four short plays presented by the People’s Right Movement focused the reality on ground for the poor and working section of the society and brought out the agony and pain Faiz had seen in the life of the common people.

One play focused on the use of literature with the message that it was surely not enough simply to write down observation and experience. Writers had the duty to join the struggle for the sake of truth.

The second play depicted two social butterflies engaged in talking against luxuries. One of the two ladies professed love for the hurt experienced by the poor class at the same time she violently rebuked a poor domestic woman servant saying that ‘the poor class was a deceitful class.’ The working woman had merely asked her for a small amount to relieve a sudden distress.

The third play was a humorous skit on the economic terminology of trickle down effect. A thespian wit explained the concept thus, “when you amass lot of wealth you leave something for the parasites to sponge on.”

In the fourth play, a poor man’s son comes to an executive officer for a job. The candidate was a graduate. However, the officer turns the candidate, a graduate, out saying “I want refined and sophisticated people in this office — people who are able to speak English well.”

Faiz’s poem Hum dekhainge brought the function to a close.

Nasreen Azhar thanked the guests and said the programme had been mounted by Faiz’s admirers such as Kishwar Naheed, Naeem Mirza, Aslam Azhar, Ashfaque Saleem Mirza and others.