KARACHI: Friends, relatives and colleagues poured their hearts out as they went down memory lane at a condolence reference held at the Arts Council on Saturday evening to pay homage to eminent poet, journalist and trade union activist Wahid Bashir, who passed away on June 21.

Dr Syed Jaffer Ahmed conducted the programme. He began proceedings by reading out the following couplet by Wahid Bashir:

Zard patton ke liyey aik he jhonka hai bahut Narm konpal ki tarha paon jamaey rakhyey (A slight breeze is enough to knock down dried leaves Like a delicate bud, remain grounded) Dr Jaffer said Wahid Bashir was a poet, journalist, trade union leader and committed socialist. He remained dedicated throughout his life to the ideological path that he chose for himself. In trying circumstances some people lost their way, but he never lost track of his path, he told the audience who had come in a considerable number. He said Wahid Bashir was born in Hyderabad Deccan and migrated to Pakistan in 1949. In 1956-57 he passed his matriculation exams. In 1962 he was one of the 12 students who were exiled from Karachi as they were part of a student movement disliked by the then government. His career in journalism started with the magazine Al Fatah for which he wrote a regular column, and later on joined Business Recorder. He was the founding editor of Irtiqa Publications. During the course of his struggle for workers, he also got arrested. As a poet, he had two poetry collections — Cactus ke Phool and Jo Aitbar Kia — to his credit, he said.

Also read: Journalist Wahid Bashir passes away

A close friend of the late poet and journalist, Rahat Saeed said he had known Wahid Bashir for 58 years, therefore he couldn’t sum up his association with him in two to three minutes. He said he was grateful to the late leader for two reasons: for introducing him (Saeed) to Hamza Alavi and to Zameer Niazi. In return, he said, he reintroduced Wahid Bashir to Aziz Salam Bukhari.

Dr Alia Imam said Wahid Bashir was a beautiful human being. Defining that she said a beautiful person was one who upheld the truth with bravery, adopted a great ideology, and then went through the test of fire to achieve his goals. Mr Bashir was one such individual.

‘The late poet drafted the ailaan nama of the historic conference in which Sibt-i-Hasan was an inspiring participant’

Tauseef Ahmed said in 1981 Wahid Bashir was arrested by the military authorities. They put him in a lockup. At the time Rasool Bakhsh Talpur was working with the chief minister. He and Mr Bashir’s wife met Mr Talpur to resolve the situation. Mr Talpur said Mr Bashir could get out if he gave a statement that he had nothing to do with the movement for which he was arrested. Mr Bashir’s wife said under no circumstance could her husband do that and left Mr Talpur’s office.

Ayub Qureshi said if the struggle for the working class people achieved success, it would owe its success to Wahid Bashir.

Wali Rizvi recalled the 1970 strike in which no newspaper in both wings of the country was published for 10 days. Wahid Bashir was asked to look at the legal side of things during that strike, he said.

Kavish Abbasi said Wahid Bashir composed poetry at a time when the Progressive Movement was looked at in a favourable light. Today, this was not the situation, he lamented.

Anis Zaidi likened Wahid Bashir to Maulana Hasrat Mohani. He pointed out that people followed those individual who upheld the truth, and the late activist always sided with the truth. He remarked that Wahid Bashir practised what he preached, which was why he sent his son and daughter to the same school where children of the labourers went.

Muslim Shamim reminisced about Wahid Bashir’s role in the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the Progressive Writers Association (1986). He said the late poet drafted the ailaan nama of the historic conference in which Sibt-i-Hasan was an inspiring participant.

When Wahid Bashir’s daughter Dr Nida was asked to say a few words, she couldn’t stop tears from trickling down her face. So she only thanked everyone for remembering her father in kind words.

Ali Osat Jaffery, Salimuddin Sheikh, Habibuddin Junaidi, Karan Singh, Noor Ahmed, Dr Jamal Naqvi, Zubair Rehman, Hasan Elia, Nazir Laghari and others also spoke.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2015

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