A seasoned poet and popular radio broadcaster Maqsood Wafa is a prominent figure on the literary scene of Faisalabad. Born in Kuwait, he moved to Faisalabad during his early teens in 1974. He was into literature and composing poetry from a tender age. A literary environment at educational institutions and tradition of poetry recitals helped him groom as a poet and he developed a passion for reading literature from all over the world.

“Gen Zia’s martial law was the cruelest regime; Halqa Arbab-i-Zauq was banned, the poets were arrested and harassed for being critical to the dictator. We made another literary organisation, Sadaf, and ran it for almost a decade,” Wafa recalls.

Losing his father right after graduation, he had to discontinue his studies and joined the State Bank of Pakistan from where he retired last year.

“Financial conditions and the way one earn one’s living have a major impact on his way of thinking and beliefs. But I never thought like a banker through my career and, despite all odds, kept the flair for creativity alive,” he says.

Maqsood Wafa’s first collection of Urdu poetry, Dar-i-Imkaan, in 1994 was widely appreciated. It has had seven editions and became his hallmark.

“Initially, I was criticised in my hometown. The literary circles of Lahore were the first to acknowledge me. Those were not the ideal times. The editors of literary editions of Urdu newspapers were cheaply selling themselves. Favouritism was at its peak but the popularity of my book was surprising for the critics as well as myself,” he recalls.

“Dar-i-Imkaan was followed by Elaihida after a long gap, in 2012.

“There is a strong critic inside me who keeps on rejecting my writings so it took very long to print the second poetry collection. I chose only the writings originating from my own experience and existence,” he relates.

Wafa is currently working on a collection of prose poems (nasri nazm) to be printed by the end of this year and a collection of Punjabi poems, Charay Nukraan Mayrian.

“Every language has a temperament of its own. The things which I write in Punjabi can’t be expressed in any other language. The idea creates its own style and diction.

“We need words to express but at the same time words become hindrance to expression. One should focus on thought and live with it to create mature writings,” he says, elaborating his philosophy of poetry.

“If you want a language to progress, you must have strong ideas like Rasul Gamzatov penned ‘My Dagestan’ in a language familiar only to a very small community. But because of strong content, it got international fame.

“You have to read Waris Shah and Bulleh Shah even if you haven’t studied Punjabi in junior school because of their stunningly rich content. Only slogans cannot protect or develop a language,” he believes.

For the last 10 years, Wafa has been working as a broadcaster, presenting a weekly show on a local FM radio, addressing socio-political issues, which are usually ignored by the mainstream media.

“The radio provides me with freedom of speech and liberty in studio. In dim light and relaxed environment, the live broadcast becomes a monologue for me.

“Listening to recordings made me realise the poetic essence of this activity. It gave another dimension to my poetic expression. My recent writings are influenced by this experience.”

Wafa spent a major part of his youth with political activists, having left leanings and he is very critical of them.

“The leftists started behaving like rigid mullahs. There is no rightist and no leftist in Pakistan; all we have is a herd of opportunists. The images of Mao, Che and Castro are dashed to ground. There is no democracy existing and the whole world is being dictated by the arms manufacturers,” he says in a bitter tone.

“We will have to create new ideologies for the betterment of humanity. There are people in the world thinking on the same lines but they are not integrated so far. But, I hope they will come forward and join hands after this era of destruction is over,” he adds.

A voracious reader, Maqsood Wafa has a huge collection of books at home. Most of his writings originate from the life around him; his own pleasures, pains and agony. His diction has a visible impression of the contemporary masters. Mostly using a mellow tone, in a very subtle way, he shocks his readers to rethink and read what is unsaid.

Published in Dawn, May 7th, 2017