KARACHI, Sept 25: Wedded to social and humanitarian causes, senior journalist Wahid Basheer has composed eye-opening poetry that mirrors his commitments and political ideas. These thoughts were expressed by speakers on Saturday evening at the launch of Basheer’s second anthology of poems, “Jo aitebar kiya”. His first collection of poems was titled “Cactus key phool”.

Noor Mohammad Shaikh read out a five-page essay on the life and career of Basheer. He said that Basheer was born into a religious family based in Hyderabad Deccan. “His real name is Mohammad Abdul Wahid Siddiqui and he embarked on a journalistic career in 1974 by joining the monthly ‘Al-Fatah’. He was arrested in the early 1980s when his magazine was raided by law-enforcement agencies,” he recalled.

Sarwar Javed said Basheer’s anthology of poems had come out very late. “It was his modesty that stopped him from bringing out his book. Plagiarists took advantage of his modest nature and walked off with his original ideas,” he said.

Mr Javed said that according to a literary canon, a poet’s verses should be examined independent of his personality. “But I refuse to apply this principle to living poets whose verses should accord with their stated beliefs and principles,” he said.

Anwar Ahsan Siddiqui said that he had known Basheer for over four decades. “And except for the infirmities of old age, nothing about Basheer has changed. He is as forthright -– and his intellect as strong and independent -– as he was in the past,” he said.

Ahfaz-ur-Rahman said he could not be impartial about Basheer’s poetry because he was, to use a literary phrase, “Ghalib ka tarafdar”. “I met him for the first time in 1960 at our college where we were together. Though I had read a bit of Premchand and Sahir Ludhianvi and had therefore become acquainted with the concept of class struggle, I was still very wet behind the ears. It was under Basheer’s tutelage that I acquired political and social maturity,” he conceded.

Mr Rahman recalled that in the past students were so politically sensitized that they would react to all international developments, whether they occurred in faraway Algiers or in neighbouring India. “But now there is a deafening silence in our seats of higher learning. There is a deafening silence even among liberals and progressives. Perhaps all of us have become exhausted,” he observed.

Shaista Zaidi spoke about the role played by Basheer’s late wife in his life and social career. She said that while others had spoken about the literary merits of Basheer’s poetry, to her mind, his best couplet was his daughter Nida.

Basheer read out verses from his book.