MULTAN: Renowned Seraiki poet, Nazeer Faiz Maggi, who gained unparalleled popularity among the masses for writing poems for rights of Seraiki region and taking on the forces he thought had usurped his land whether these were of the state, the army or society, died at Nishtar Hospital here on Saturday. He was 69.

He was suffering from lung disease and was admitted to the hospital in a critical condition a couple of weeks back. He is survived by seven children, including four sons and three daughters.

Maggi was born at Kotla Sher Muhammad of tehsil Rajanpur on Aug 14, 1947. He was popular in the Seraiki mushairas and people liked him very much. His poetry moved their nationalistic feelings so much that they would start raising slogans in favour of Seraiki movement when he used to recite his famous poems.

Maggi wrote many poems which became popular among the people. One of his poems is titled Karo-Kari which is a dialogue between a little boy and his father. When the father justifies the killing of the daughter in the name of honour, the boy asks the father why he did not kill his son who had done the same act.

Assal bhoeen de waris assaan, assaan bhoeen tu khali/aavo her her zalim ku, ajj devo des nikaali (we are the real owners of the land, but we have no hold on it/Come, let us all together drive the occupiers out). This is what Maggi says in one of his famous poems which is a protest against, what he termed, Punjabi occupation of the Seraiki land.

“His struggle was in the support of the downtrodden and against the social injustice, domestic colonisation and feudalism,” says renowned Seraiki scholar, critic and poet Aslam Rasoolpuri.

Seraiki intellectual Ahsan Wagha considers Maggi as one of the big names in Seraiki poetry. He says Maggi emerged with a movement which started in the mid-1970s to be precise after the Seraiki Conference of 1974-75 in Multan and Bahawalpur which was the turning point in the nationalist, cultural and political phenomena in the middle of the Indus valley which later came to be known as Seraiki Wasaib (region).

“There was a range of Seraiki poets who took it upon themselves to not only satisfy their creative ability but also serve the people by making them aware of their nationalism and Maggi was one of them.

He stands tall among the major modern poets of Seraiki area, including Aziz Shahid, Ashu Lal, Rifat Abbas, Aslam Javed, Naseer Sarmad and so on,” Wagha added.

Dr Nukhba Langah of the FC College University quotes from one of Maggi’s poems, saying “Our land ruled by you, our earning used by you/you depend on our crops, sucking farmers’ blood/you are the rulers, society is yours/one day Faiz, we will have to change it all”.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2016