TOBA TEK SINGH: “Though I was selected by the Punjab Public Service Commission as a lecturer in English, Urdu, Islamic Studies and History also, but I preferred to teach Punjabi as I loved my mother tongue,” says octogenarian scholar Prof Dr Hameedullah Hasmi, who has been nominated for Tamgha-i-Imtiaz (civil) for his literary works.

The state honour will be bestowed upon Mr Hashmi at a ceremony to be held on March 23, 2021, at Islamabad.

Sharing his memories with Dawn, Dr Hashmi, who has a doctorate in Urdu literature and is author of 110 books, 60 of these in Punjabi, said it was late prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto who first time announced that Punjabi would be taught as a language in the colleges of Punjab after which 74 lecturers were recruited by Punjab education department for the first time.

‘’I was one of those who were selected by the Punjab Public Service Commission and was appointed at Faisalabad Government College (now Faisalabad Government College University).

This was told by Prof Dr Hameedullah Hashmi of Toba who had been awarded Tamgha-i-Imtiaz in literature by President Dr Arif Alvi and it was be given to him on March 23 in a ceremony on the eve of Pakistan day in next year. He remembered that late Bhutto was asked by some Punjabi intellectuals at a conference held in Lahore in 1974 that why Punjabi was not taught in Punjab’s institutions? And ZAB accepted their demand. He served as headmaster of the Government Model High School, TT Singh, an assistant professor at the government colleges of Sahiwal and Attock, principal at the Pakistan Embassy college in Beijing (China), Aziz Bhatti Army College, Mardan, and an assistant professor at the Pakistan Embassy school and college at Jeddah (Saudi Arabia).

He said his book -- Baba Guru Nanak -- had been translated by Indian Sikhs in Gurmukhi and now they were going to publish its translation in English too. He said that he received letters from over a dozen Indian Sikh educationists for writing the book.

The 83-year-old scholar is writing his 111th book now a days which is on Raja Porus, the local hero who fought against Alexander the Great when he invaded India. His other books include -- Mian Muhammad Bakhsh, Heer Waris Shah, Shah Rukan-i-Alam, while two of his books, Tareekh-i-Balochistan and Punjabi Di Adabi Tareekh, are in the syllabus of the Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU).

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2020