SAHIWAL: The Sahiwal Arts Council (SAC), in collaboration with local Punjabi literary organisations, held a condolence reference for Punjabi poet Baba Talib Jatoi at Jinnah Hall on Sunday.

He breathed his last on Dec 12 at the age of 67. The reference was attended by Punjabi language activists, academia, the deceased’s family, political workers and poets.

Addressing the reference, retired Prof Dr Razzaq Shahid said Jatoi’s Punjabi poetry depicted his inner self because he always sent his message with reference to culture and identity.

“Baba Jatoi’s poems are written in forms of dialogue and many of his poems can be dramatised as they narrate each and every detail of subject under discussion,” Dr Razzaq added.

He specially referred to three famous poems of Jatoi, namely Salsee, Chandani and Galaan, that are enough to place him among the list of leading Punjabi poets of his era.

Prof Dr Sajjad Naseem of Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan said Jatoi’s poems were a part of Bachelor’s and Master’s syllabi of the university.

He said Jatoi was representative of ‘Mhattar or Janglee’ class and he was never ashamed of his roots and identity.

He said the late poet never used ‘colonial symbols’ in his poetry and his symbols represented his own class, land and culture.

Mr Naseem pointed out that many of Jatoi’s poems depicted the character of his community and its lifestyle.

He said his poem “Lorry” is a classical comic satire on class structure of Punjab.

Dr Mushtaq Adil said the late poet followed Waris Shah as he used common man’s diction in his poetry.

He said Jatoi was a representative of Ganji Bar dialect.

Prof Asghar Ali Baloch also highlighted words from folk culture used by Jatoi in his poems which had their own context and connotation.

Zakriya Khan of Lok Sujag, said Baba Talib always hoped that one day the people of Punjab would also take pride in their language and culture like Sindhis, Pakhtuns and people of other nationalities.

He said the late poet was aware of the political service of his poetry for Punjabi language cause.

Riaz Hamdani, the director SAC, handed over Majeed Amjad Literary Award to Jatoi’s son Khalid Shabbir.

Imtiaz Butt of Awaz Society, Farooq Azhar, Abdur Razaaq, Ihsanul Haq Idrees, Saeed Khan Baloch and Shoukat Kathiya also spoke.

On the occasion, an announcement was made that Baba Talib Jatoi’s fourth poetry collection, Mela Akhrain Da, will be published by Mahkain Adabi Board.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2019