KARACHI: Dr Feroz Ahmed was one of the finest intellectuals of our time and one of the first, along with Dr Iqbal Ahmad and Dr Ayaz, to raise his voice against the violence unleashed by the state in what is now Bangladesh, said the moderator of a session to mark the 20th death anniversary of the late activist on Friday evening.

Speaking at the event where his book Samraj Aur Pakistan was also launched at the Karachi Arts Council, the moderator added that Dr Feroz had also critically analysed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s government and policies. “Dr Feroz’s work is now a part of history,” he said.

Born in Karachi in 1940, Dr Feroz received his early education at the NVJ School. He went on to study in the US. According to his friends and colleagues at the event, Dr Feroz was primarily a microbiologist but when he went to Hawaii he decided to pursue sociology.

Riaz Sheikh started talking about Dr Feroz with a poem by Hasan Abidi which was written a few days after Dr Feroz’s death to give the audience an idea about the sort of person he was.

“Dr Feroz was always a political activist. His book Samraj Aur Pakistan is an important book for students and intellectuals. It looked at the history of colonialism, American imperialism and exploitation, foreign investments and Pakistan’s relationship with the Middle East,” said Dr Sheikh.

Dr Tasneem, who was at university with Dr Feroz and his wife, said that while she was not qualified to talk about the deceased, she would like to share some personal perceptions. “We didn’t know much then; Feroz would go to attend events, talks etc and we would just go with him. I used to read but I had no idea about how intelligent and intellectual he was,” she said.

“Nadra [his wife] gave me his book to read and it is brilliant. His early statistical analysis shows his scientific background ... his book did leave me something to ponder on; if that was American samraj we are definitely heading towards a Chinese samraj today,” she added.

Economist Akbar Zaidi spoke about Dr Feroz’s book by apologising to the other speakers, including Piler’s Karamat Ali, as he felt they would disagree with his analysis.

“I don’t think Dr Feroz would have written this book had he been alive today,” he said, adding that at the time it was written in it made sense but things had changed now.

“The face of samraj has changed,” he said, adding “I know no one will like this but samraj has spread across the world and been renamed globalisation.”

Karamat Ali, economist Dr Kaiser Bengali, Dr Feroz’s wife Nadra and Senator Dr Karim Khawaja also spoke.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2017