PESHAWAR: Speakers at a ceremony here on Tuesday termed two newly published Pashto books termed beacon of light for the upcoming woman literati.

They urged the government to remove bureaucratic obstacles for awarding NOC for holding literary and cultural activities at a hall adjacent to Nishtar Hall under the culture directorate.

They said that writers and artists faced difficulties to get permission from the authorities concerned for organising events at a comparatively small hall located on the premises of Nishtar Hall.

They were speaking at the launching ceremony of two new Pashto books ‘Zalanda Sabawoon’ and ‘Tor Gulab’ written by Kalsoomzeb. The launching ceremony was organised at culture directorate hall under auspices of Khwendo Adabi Lakhkar.

A large number of poets, writers, artists, social and rights activists attended the event. ANP general secretary Main Iftikhar Hussain and PPP provincial president Humayun Khan also attended the event.

Speaking on the occasion, senior progressive writer Salim Raz asked the relevant officials to remove bureaucratic hurdles in the way of poets, writers and artists to conduct positive social, literary, cultural and political activities in the hall.

He said that sometime back, he and his colleagues had approached culture directorate to allow them for observing the death anniversary of great progressive Pashto writer and freedom fighter Sanubar Hussain Kakaji but their request was declined at the eleventh hour.

Mian Iftikhar Hussain thanked the culture directorate for waiving rules of securing NOC from local police station and deputy commissioner for him but called upon high-ups to give easy and free access to literati and artists to the places built for them to organise such events.

“It is highly regrettable that today a woman writer was asked to first secure NOC for launch of her books. This very hall was built for such small gatherings during my tenure as culture minister but now its doors are being closed on writers and artists,” he regretted.

Iqbal Hussain Afkar in his opening remarks said that Kalsoomzeb had earlier launched her poetic career under the pseudo name of Nazo but then she took courage and united woman writers most of those had brought out their books.

Prof Noorul Amin Yousafzai said that the characters portrayed by Kalsoomzeb in her stories and also in her poems narrated the issues and problems of women and the society at large.

Fazal Momand said that style of Kalsoomzeb was simple but bold and she never minced words when it came to women issues including harassment and girls’ education.

Farzana Rasool Sanam, Sajida Maqbool Tanha and Abdul Wadood Ashanghari paid poetic tributes to Kalsoomzeb while Sabawoonzeb, her daughter, delivered an inspiring speech dedicated her mother.

Zeb Afridi, general secretary of KHAL, recited a poem while Prof Aseer Mangal, Aziz Manirwal, Comrade Anwarzeb, Laiqzada Laiq and Prof Abaseen Yousafzai also spoke at the event.

Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2020