KARACHI: Social activist and student leader, Late Jauhar Husain, was remembered at the Karachi Press Club on Saturday. His friends, admirers and family members fondly remembered him for his commitment to the cause of the common people.

The speakers included Jauhar’s younger brother Taj Haider, his sister Shaista Zaidi, politicians Meraj Mohammad Khan and Fatehyab Ali Khan, and Ali Mukhtar Rizvi, Shafi Adabi and Dr Mahboob.

Ms Shaista Zaidi, in her highly emotional discourse, mentioned some of the qaulities of her late brother; his deep love and respect for the common people, his generosity and amiable manners, his political knowledge and sense of commitment.

She said: “I lament not for Jauhar only. I lament for all those decades of the past filled with revolutionary zeal, hope for a bright future and a democratic era. Those decades are now dead and buried.”

“Why is it so,” she continued, “that those devoted young men could not pass their ideals on to the next generation? Where are the dreamers? Why have our young men stopped dreaming?

Taj Haider, defining the idealism his late brother carried with him throughout his life, said our political and social consciousness are the only guarantee of a bright future.

Meraj Mohammad Khan dwelt upon the reasons for Pakistan’s poverty and backwardness and held the feudal system responsible for all the evils.

Meraj recalled the time when he, along with a dozen other activists of the National Students Federation including late Jauhar Husain, was expelled from Karachi.

“We were taught to work for social revolution in those days, and not terrorism. We respected our teachers and elders.

Ali Mukhtar Rizvi remembered the historic role of the NSF in the 50s and 60s when it started a political movement against the Ayub regime and made the terror-stricken politicians pick up courage and develop hope. Rizvi said Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah admired and loved the NSF boys for their activism.

Shabih Haider presented a versified Urdu translation of a poem by Nazim Hikmat. Basir Naveed did the compering. The meeting was held under the aegis of Jauhar Husain Memorial Foundation and the Karachi Press Club.—Hasan Abidi