LAHORE: At a memorial reference for renowned academic and journalist Dr Mehdi Hasan, his decades-old colleague, veteran activist and journalist Husain Naqi, shared memories of their student activism days at the Punjab University (PU) in the 1960s, particularly against the then dictator Gen Ayub Khan’s educational policies.

At the event held on Friday at the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), Mr Naqi called the late academic a “dispassionate, secular” individual who was very vocal about his views. Dr Hasan had passed away at the age of 85 on Feb 23 after a protracted illness.

Dr Hamid Qazalbash, a retired political science professor at PU, recalled his early days at the university, saying Dr Hasan, a progressive person, was always under pressure from one quarter or the other. “His storytelling skills made him an interesting personality. In the PU’s media department, he faced the elements who didn’t believe in freedom of expression and encountered a lot of problems daily. The time spent with him and our other fellows at his place in the journalists colony back then was the best time.”

Dr Qizalbash then read out a poem, titled ‘Ab chalta hoon’, which he said he found online written by someone for late Indian actor Irrfan Khan and which reminded him of Dr Hasan.

Mohammad Tahseen, the founding director of South Asia Partnership Pakistan, told the audience Dr Hasan was a great photographer. “It was remarkable and very brave of him to publicly call himself a Leftist at the PU in those days. He was so determined for the cause of human rights that he actively worked till he possibly could,” said Mr Tahseen in his brief talk followed by a recitation of Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s poem, ‘Paoon se lahu ko dho daalo’.

Analyst Imtiaz Alam revealed he never liked Dr Hasan or developed communication with him, yet praised his storytelling skills, articulation, dressing sense. “He was a progressive liberal, an atheist, who always had irreconcilable conflict with the state that couldn’t accommodate people like him. This post-Partition generation was in a consistent battle of ideas.”

Joining from India through Zoom, the late academic’s relative and Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) colleague, Syeda Hameed reminisced that the one common element in Dr Hasan’s family was stubbornness, saying he had the grit to stand in the face of opposition.

He believed in the freedom of thinking and always said there’s no compulsion in religion. “He once wanted to advise Benzair and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto about enlightened moderation, but wasn’t heard. He was a man for the entire South Asia and beyond, and not for one country. We really need him, his writings and thoughts in the situation our countries are in right now,” she maintained.

Another PIPFPD colleague from across the border, Tapan Bose, said Dr Hasan loved to promote discussion and dialogue, was enormously open-minded and liberal, and genuinely believed in people’s freedoms. “He had a deeply secular mind. He fought dictatorial regimes and stood up for the ideals of freedom,” said the elderly proponent of Indo-Pak peace.

HRCP Chairperson Hina Jilani mourned the loss of human rights champions like Asma Jahangir, IA Rehman and Dr Mehdi Hasan. She said Dr Hasan never wavered from saying what he felt. “He kept identifying the biggest threat to the nation was religious extremism.”

Dr Mehdi’s son, Vasi, was also invited on stage to share his memories who said his father was “a black or white person, he had no greys and often got into trouble for it”.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2022