ISLAMABAD, Jan. 5: Masud Mufti Fun Aur Shakhsiat, a book written by Dr Maqsooda Hussain, was launched here on Wednesday under the auspices of Daira. Adviser to the Prime Minister on Women Development Nilofar Bakhtiar was the chief guest.

Speaking on the occasion, Pakistan Academy of Letters Chairman Iftikhar Arif said it was the first reference book on Masud Mufti, who spoke of the human sufferings. He said Masud Mufti had furnished a valuable document in his reportage about East Pakistan, which was the part of our history. "No writer has written so faithfully about East Pakistan and with so much feeling as Masud Mufti has done."

Pakistan Language Authority (PLA) has sponsored the book under a project focussing on the works of contemporary writers. The project was entrusted to Dr Maqsooda Hussain six years ago but the book came out of the press recently.

Masud Mufti had been posted in East Pakistan in 70s and become PoW after the fall of Dhaka. NLA Chairman Prof Fateh Mohammad Malik said Mufti could not forget the pangs of East Pakistan's separation and hence continued to remind the people that it was the result of a decadent system. Mufti has also formed a political party to give training to the people, he added.

Mufti believed that the capitulation of East Pakistan was in fact a hidden victory for the army-feudal nexus, which was bent on retaining its dominance on the common man by all means, Prof Malik said.

Eminent poet Nasir Zaidi described Masud Mufti's short stories as speaking literature. "Mufti has also written deeply moving short stories about the 1965 war." Later, these stories were published in the name of Rag-i-Sang and received the 6th September literary prize. Mufti portrays objects in the manner as they are seen, he added.

Ghazanfar Mehdi spoke about the society's need for the services of literary persons, who expressed the mood of people. Several other speakers, including Col Ghulam Sarwar, Dr Rashid Nisar, Dr Shaukat focussed on the personality and merit of the book of Dr Maqsooda.

Dr Maqsooda said she her father served in the army in East Pakistan during 1971 and remained there PoW. Later, she had a chance to read a reportage of East Pakistan, Chehray, written by Masud Mufti.

This prompted her to carry out research on Mufti, she added. Nilofer Bakhtiar spoke of her involvement in the public trauma of East Pakistan as her own brother was an army officer at Khalna and was taken the prisoner of war.

She narrated the experiences of her visit to Dhaka as director of Lion's International, and also told about the ceremony where the national anthem of Pakistan was played after Bangladesh.

She said she was suddenly seized with the impulse to sing her country's national anthem, at this two former Bengali officers of Pakistan Navy joined her and later the entire hall begun singing the Pakistan's national anthem.