KARACHI It was an evening marked by impassioned speeches and high-strung emotions. The event, organised by the Habib Jalib Peace Committee on Thursday at the Karachi Press Club, was to honour philanthropist Abdus Sattar Edhi with the third Habib Jalib Peace Award while remembering, and paying tribute to, the shaer-i-awam. Social scientist and scholar Sobho Gianchandiani was the recipient of the very first Habib Jalib Peace Award in 2007. The next year it was given to Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan.

Justice Fakhruddin G Ibrahim, who presided over the event, gave away the award to Abdus Sattar Edhi.

Saeed Pervaiz conducted the programme and kept the audience engaged by reciting Jalib's couplets going with the speaker he would invite on the podium to speak on the poet. He often repeated Jalib's line “Jaag merey Punjab ke Pakistan chala” in a meaningful manner.

Speeches began with Comrade Waris Raza's well-written paper 'Gham ki potli mein lipta hua Jalib nazarya'. He juxtaposed the poet's works with the contemporary socio-political situation of the country.

Habib Jalib's son Nasir Jalib, who had especially come from Lahore to take part in the programme, touched upon the wave of violence that has recently engulfed Karachi, and apprised the audience that his illustrious father would visit the megapolis whenever it underwent a turbulent phase.

But the evening caught pace when workers' leader Usman Baloch fervently requested Senator Raza Rabbani, who was on stage along with other guests, to rid the Pakistan People's Party of the influence of bureaucrats. He discussed the sensitive situation in Balochistan and suggested that the province be given a special status. He severely criticised Interior Minister Rehman Malik's recent irresponsible statement regarding the slain Baloch leader Sher Mohammad's Iranian links. He said divisions on linguistic or sectarian grounds would destroy the country.

Journalist Nazir Laghari lamented the fact that there is no Habib Jalib in the present era, and added that in modern times there are buyers and sellers of intellect, intelligence and loyalty.

Human Rights activist Iqbal Haider appreciated the fact that the organisers had chosen April 30, a day before May 1 (Labour Day), for the programme because Jalib always spoke for the underprivileged. He pointed out that the need of the hour is to rise above linguistic or sectarian divides and become a force that could bring together all the oppressed segments of society. He said today the mazloom are being pitted against each other, and added that Gen Ziaul Haq nurtured ethnic political parties and retired Gen Pervez Musharraf did the same with the Taliban. He warned that the establishment's policies will ultimately do no good to Pakistan.

Mr Haider said that the establishment harms the Baloch people and then label them traitors. He demanded that Balochistan be given provincial autonomy and all the missing persons brought back to their families.

Poet Tauqir Chughtai read out his poem 'Jalib ki rooh se mukalima', which was very well received.

Senator Raza Rabbani spoke on the fact that Habib Jalib's ideology and philosophy haven't been properly followed by society. He said if Pakistan is in danger of disintegration then the solution doesn't solely lie in giving fiery speeches; the entire nation or each individual has to look inwards in order to protect the federation. He regretted the role that the civil-military bureaucracy has been playing since 1947.

Mr Rabbani said we also have to keep an eye on different international forces' world agenda for our region. He talked about these forces' designs of international expansionism and gave Pakistan's nuclear assets as one of the reasons. He reiterated that a crippled democracy is far better than any kind of dictatorship and feared that a conspiracy is being hatched to annul the people's mandate. He praised the Charter of Democracy, according to which the civil-military bureaucracy would work under the democratic dispensation.

Senior Vice-President of the Pakistan Workers Party Yousuf Masti Khan said Jalib was not merely a poet, he was a movement; and movements never die. He was Pakistan's Pablo Neruda. He pointed out that Balochistan has been suffering ever since Pakistan came into being, and argued that there's a difference between watan and riyasat, and the watan of the Baloch is Balochistan just as the watan of the Sindhis is Sindh. If the riyasat (state) doesn't take care of its people then they have every right to disassociate themselves from it.

Former governor of Sindh Mamnoon Husain agreed that Pakistan is faced with a myriad of problems, and blamed retired Gen Pervez Musharraf for a lot of unresolved issues.

Pakistan Muslim League-N's Mushahidullah Khan discussed the issue of the economy, which he argued that retired Gen Musharraf used as a peg to bolster his rule. He interspersed his speech with quite a few of Jalib's nazms.

Senator Mir Hasil Bizenjo said the country's workers in the 1980s had hinted about the turmoil that can be witnessed in Balochistan and the NWFP today. Mir Ghaus Bakhsh Bizenjo had also predicted that the guns that were aimed at Kabul would one day turn towards Pakistan, and that's exactly what's happening now.

Hasil Bizenjo asserted that the disintegration of any country is not that big a problem, but he would never like to live in a country ruled by Sufi Mohammad and his ilk. He said international forces are working on an unfinished agenda which began with the breaking up of the USSR.

It's not the nuclear assets that they're looking at, he said, and criticised the establishment's policies that are the root-cause of all evils. He informed the audience that Russia, China and India have given the US a clean chit to do as it pleases in the war on terror. Mr Bizenjo said the establishment has decided that it will take on the entire world with the help of illiterate mullahs and slammed the politicians for accepting the Nizam-i-Adl, raising the question that if a young girl in Islamabad can go to school, why can't a girl in Swat. He said the Taliban either hold sway or have influence in 75 per cent of the NWFP.

Abdus Sattar Edhi emphasised the need for bringing simplicity into our lives, arguing that unless we become better human beings, we will be surrounded by the problems that the speakers before him had highlighted. He said that the rich in Pakistan pays only 10 per cent of taxes, whereas the underprivileged is finding it more and more difficult to make ends meet. Justice Fakhruddin G. Ibrahim started by speaking briefly on Edhi Sahib and told the audience that when he was governor of Sindh ethnic riots broke out in Hyderabad. He took Edhi Sahib there and the rioters listened to him and gave him respect, because he's a man of peace.

Talking about Habib Jalib, Justice Ibrahim said he was the voice of the people, someone who could say long before the lawyers did that “main nahin manta, main nahin janta”. He indicated that the three major problems confronting Pakistan are (1) injustice (2) injustice (3) injustice.

However, he assured, things are going to change for the better, “because the time to fear is behind us, and we have become a brave people”.

Justice Ibrahim said there's no such thing as the point of no return, as the lawyers' movement had proved. He said if we keep moving with the same spirit there will be no military rule in Pakistan anymore, and added that 'right has left; anything that remains is left'.

Justice Ibrahim said people like Faiz, Hasan Nasir and Jalib don't die; they live in the hearts of those who they leave behind. He emoted he's a committed non-violent person, and added that history has proved the worth of two people's struggle Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. He requested everybody to spread happiness, because happiness breeds happiness, and concluded his speech by saying in a meaningful tone, “tomorrow will be a new day”.

In the end president Karachi Press Club Imtiaz Faran extended his gratitude to all the participants of the event.