SAHIWAL: Seventy literary delegates, including Moneeza Hashmi, on Saturday visited the Faiz Ward in Central Jail Sahiwal (earlier called Montgomery Jail) where Faiz Ahmed Faiz was imprisoned in the Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case.

The delegates are on a visit to the city to attend a two-day literary conference, “Harappa – our literature and its role in search and formation of cultural identity,” that kicked off at the Sahiwal Art.

Speaking to the delegates, Ms Hashmi said her father (Faiz), instead of giving her a doll, handed her over a poem as her birthday present on the premises of the Gora Ward, now named Faiz Ward.

“This was Aug 27, 1954 and my birthday was on Aug 25. Two days after my birthday, my mother brought me here to meet my father who was imprisoned.”

She said she got angry that her father did not give her the gift of her choice but today while standing in front of this ward she realized that if he had given her a doll that would have broken within one or two years but the poem was still with her after the lapse of 68 years.

Two-day Harappa moot kicks off

Moneeza read out the poem Faiz had written for her. Recollecting her memories, she said her father had written her several letters from the prison and she published them recently in a book, titled “Conversations with My Father”. The delegates saw two cells where Faiz was imprisoned.

The jail administration had posted many pictures of Faiz provided to them by the Faiz Foundation. The prison department also shows the entry registered upon which Faiz Ahmed Faiz himself signed when he entered the prison in 1954.

Noor Hasan Baghella, the superintendent of prison, also spoke. Malik Shaukat Feroz, the DIG Prisons, said the department was planning to set up the Faiz Museum for the general public. He said the department requested Faiz Foundation to provide it with the letters and memorabilia related to Faiz’s stay in the prison.

Earlier, the Harappa conference was inaugurated by Commissioner Javed Akhter Mahmood. He and Suman Rai, DG of population welfare department, gave opening speeches. Two sessions were held on the first day of the conference.

The first session was chaired by Dr Anwar Ahmed. Nasir Abbas Nayyar, Tahira Iqbal, Khalid Sanjarani, Ravish Nadim and Iftikhar Shafi read out their papers.

The second session had Prof Imran Jaffar, Hina Jamshed, Asim Dogar, Sanobar Altaf, Amir Sohail and Sohail Abbas in it.

Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2022