There are three great Punjabi poets who were either senior to or contemporaries of Mir Taqi Mir, Nazeer Akbarabadi and Ghalib but most of the official literary and cultural advisers of the Punjab government are either unaware of their status or deliberately ignore them.

The latest example in this regard is the so-called Alami Adabi and Saqafati conference at Alhamra arranged by educationist, writer and columnist Ataul Haq Qasmi. Urdu (not Punjabi) writers from India and other countries besides Pakistan were invited to the conference.

It was pointed out before the conference to the organisers by a Lahore columnist that the conference was just Urdu-specific and the Punjabi language, writers of Punjab, the Sindhi, Pushto and Balochi languages have been ignored. It meant it was not representative of the present Pakistan.

It was shocking that none of the writers protested against the discrimination. There was another shock when one came to know that the delegates were not provided with an opportunity to visit the cultural, literary and historical sites to know about the grand history of this city where much senior poet Shah Husain (of 16th century and much senior even to the founder of Urdu language and poetry, Wali Deccani) have been buried in the vicinity of Shalimar Bagh.

Even today after 461 years the language used by Husain is fresh and widely comprehensible -- much more than Urdu.

But the conference organisers failed to bring Urdu writers closer to the fact that we have been ahead of their areas in literature and culture.

Some 25 miles away from Lahore are the shrines of two Punjabi classical poets Bulleh Shah (Kasur) and Waris Shah (Jandiala Sher Khan). They are great poets and represent in their verses sensibilities and history of the Punjab which has faced many invasions from the West and the East.

They are still facing the linguistic invasion by the British which made most of the Punjabis totally ignorant of their culture, language and literature the richness of which is today being represented through some aspects of the poetry of Waris Shah.

About foreign invaders Waris Shah says: (Baba Farid was nominated the successor of the great Sufi Khwaja Bakhtiaruddin Kaki and he was not happy with the royal families system of governance. He had abandoned the capital Delhi and settled in a far-off area Ajudhan (Now Pakpattan) and established his preaching and practicing centre where Khwaja Nizamuddin Aulia was also Farid’s pupil.

Farid popularised Sufism and won over the non-believer tribes -- Sial, Kharal, Bhatti, Joya etc. Waris Shah with that reference pays a tribute to Farid who brought a fresh message to the ailing Punjab.

2. The order has been changed and now Qandharis have been given authority to rule the Punjab (Qandhar was once part of the Mughal rule). 3. Hind and Punjab are afraid of invader Nadir Shah who has destroyed the Punjab.

Against the invaders from the East and the West the Punjabis also dreamed of conquering the Hindustan, that is why the girls of the Punjab dream of conquering the Qandhar).

The most unfortunate aspect of the Punjabi language and literature is that Punjabis have disowned their language and literature and the latest proof is that no cultural body has arranged any function in the memory of the poet whose mosque in Malika Hans, where the story Heer Ranjha was versified, is in shambles (Dawn, editorial July 21).

There are at least six Punjabi literary organisations which are given meager grant by the government for promotion of Punjabi and they are:

Masud Khadarposh Trust, Punjabi Markaz, Punjabi Ball Adabi Board, Bazm-i-Maula Shah, Pakistan Punjabi Adabi Board and Bazm-i-Faqir and none of those has so far arranged any function in the memory of the poet. That is very sad.

The government created the Punjabi Institute of Language, Art and Culture but its director general is unaware of Punjabi history, culture, language and literature.

In the end some verses from Waris Shah’s Heer translated into English by a retired judge of Lahore High Court, Justice Muneer Ahmad Mughal:

SSons of dacoit chiefs by false friendship make him a servant to look after buffaloes.

Keeping beard like that of an old person and keeping a knife like the butchers, you jointly sit and hold the title of panch.

Jats are thieves, they kill the friends, do not weigh and measure to the full, and indulge in house-breaking in the night.

O Waris Shah! these Jats are all thugs, so are the Jats of Chenab.

Certainly Waris Shah was not referring to the Jats of Gujrat who are out to cut Punjab into more than three pieces. Waris Shah was not the soothsayer, but knew the Jats well.