Autaq with a difference

Autaq in a rural locale is an open house where different voices are raised and heard on different issues. Following this tradition, a literary autaq was held by the Adabiat-i-Pakistan last Friday with Mohsin Bhopali in the chair.

As against autaq culture, which is the common person's forum, there was a long line of special guests - Jazib Qureshi, Faza Aazmi, Rafiuddin Raaz, Salim Raaz and one or two others. It was also a memorable occasion for Prof Khayal Afaqi whose collection of ghazals, Rood-i-Khayal, was launched and papers were read out on the merits of the book.

The programme opened with a naat by Saqib Anjan, a well known and admired poet in the city. Later, couplets from Shahjo Risalo were sung by Haider Bakhash in his melodious voice.

As Agha Noor Muhammad Pathan was the host of the evening, he introduced the guests, all of whom were already known to those present, but Salim Raaz from Peshawar should have been more properly introduced. Raaz is a Pushto poet, although he writes in Urdu as well. A recipient of the Khushhal Khan Khattak Award for Pushto poetry, he was in Karachi in connection with the International Pushto Conference.

When Sarwar Javed was asked by the compere, Raashid Noor, to read out an obituary note for the poet/writer Shamim Naveed, who died recently, Javed declined to speak as he said he never believed in such formalities. He wanted to deliver a proper article, but the host, who had to oblige many speakers, could not spare enough time for him.

Now it was Khayal Afaqi's turn to present his poetry collection. Broadcaster Nazir Channa was the first to speak. He admired the poet for his 'universal thought' and love for humanity. Ghalib Irfan, himself a poet, presented a piece from his published article, in appreciation of Afaqi's creative talent. Afaqi, he said, was a modernist with his roots in tradition.

Anwar Iqbal, a stage artiste, who has known Khayal Afaqi as a playwright, described him as an honest person, strong in his beliefs and uncompromising in matter of principles.

Poet Rafi-ud-din Raaz praised Khayal Afaqi as a fiction writer, with many collections to his credit. Afaqi has been influenced by poets such as Sachal Sarmast.

Faza Aazmi, author of four collections of long poems, praised the poet for being original, sincere and close to the hearts of his listeners. At the same time, hesaid, he was pained to note that Urdu poetry was on the decline. While Afaqi's poetry looked fresh and there was a continuity of thought other ghazal poets displayed less cohesion.

When Jazib Qureshi came to speak, he contested Faza Aazmi's contention that Urdu poetry was declining, and referred to many modern ghazal poets who had made a rich contribution to literature. He said that Afaqi in his fourth poetry collection had produced almost the same contents as contained in his previous volumes, with only small additions. There was no visible change in his poetry in the past eight or 10 years. He, however, congratulated Afaqi for his closeness to the values of classical poetry and modernity.

Mohsin Bhopali was the last to speak. He acknowledged the poet as an important person on the literary scene and analyzed the poetic qualities of Rood-i-Khayal and the images that enriched Afaqi's poetry:

Maen aaena hoon mujhey
apney ru-baru rakhna
Mera bharam na sahi, apni
abroo rakhna

Pushto poet Saleem Raaz paid compliments to Karachi's poets.

* * * * *

A meeting held on Sunday by the Irteqa Adabi forum to honour Prof Saher Ansari provided an opportunity to poet Anwar Ahsan Siddiqui to recall the literary and cultural upsurge in Karachi in the '50s and early '60s. In photographic detail, he described the rise of the student movement and with that the coming of age of young poets, story writers and cultural activists.

One Anwer Maqbool Ansari, later known as Saher Ansari, started writing for the monthly journal Loh-o-qalam, which was edited by Anwar Ahsan Siddiqui himself, a young student in those days, and was patronized by none other than Moulvi Abdul Haq. Few persons weathered the closure of the journal and with the passage of time that golden era of youth withered away.

Saher Ansari did his MA in Urdu then in English. He followed this up with some course in languages, and joined the British Council. He taught Urdu at Balochistan University and later worked for years as head of the Karachi University's Urdu Department.

Jamal Naqvi, secretary of the forum, noted in his introductory paper that only one poetry collection 'Namood' had been published so far by Saher Ansari. He advised him to compile and publish a collection of the hundreds of articles he has written so far.

Shafiq Ahmad Shafiq, presented a detailed article on Saher Ansari's life and poetry.

Sarwar Javed found in Saher a thoughtful poet, romantic yet acceptable to persons of all ages, modest and polite. Fascinated by nature, Saher has always remained close to nature and beauty, he said.

Among others who spoke on Ansari's person and poetry were Prof Hasan Abid and Prof Izhar Haideri. Zaki Usmani read a poem in praise of the writer and poet.

At the end, two minutes of silence were observed to honour the memory of Nizam Siddiqui, Shamim Naveed, Maqbool Naqsh and television star Ishrat Hashmi.

Indian refusal to attend summit smacks of double standard

ISLAMABAD: The abrupt postponement of the 13th Saarc summit has evoked much criticism from member-states about India's indifference to regional cooperation, and its commitment to the Saarc process.

It is pointed out here that the Indian refusal to attend the Dhaka summit smacks of double standards. On the one hand it opposes any discussion on political disputes at Saarc forums, but on the other, it allows bilateral disputes and internal politics of member countries to influence its decisions on such matters as participation in Saarc summits.

This point was also reportedly made by Pakistan's director-general, Saarc, Ms Fauzia Sana, who was in Dhaka chairing the programming committee's meeting when she learnt of the Indian decision to withdraw from the summit. The programming committee could not even adopt its report because of resistance from the leader of the Indian delegation.

India communicated to Pakistan, the incumbent Saarc chairman, its decision not to attend the summit just 10 minutes before the Indian external affairs minister made the formal announcement at a Press conference in New Delhi. It was Indian foreign secretary Shayam Saran who telephoned Pakistan's additional secretary for Asia-Pacific, Mr Salman Bashir, and informed him about it.

Pakistani diplomats who had already landed in Dhaka for the summit's preparatory meetings returned with first-hand reports of how the Indian announcement came as a bombshell to all Saarc officials who were in the midst of wrapping up the first preparatory meeting of the 13th summit. The general feedback was that the host country, Bangladesh, other than being stunned by this highhanded act of the Indian government, felt a deep sense of humiliation and despair.

"They were all crestfallen and there was widespread public disappointment in Dhaka," remarked one diplomat. Apparently, the Bangladesh government had gone out of its way to arrange for a new bullet-proof car for the Indian prime minister after New Delhi's concerns regarding the security situation in Bangladesh.

According to a senior official, Bangladeshis were absolutely livid at the Indians for letting them down so badly. They saw no political or moral justification for the Indian move that was meant to snub the king of Nepal for overthrowing the pro-India Nepalese prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba.

It was also seen as evidence of Indian support for the pro-India Bangladeshi opposition leader Sheikh Hasina Wajed, who had given a strike call for the summit days.

Pakistani diplomats were disappointed particularly because they had gone to Dhaka armed with specific proposals to turn Saarc into a meaningful regional forum as it enters the third decade of its existence. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz was all set to share with South Asian leaders Pakistan's vision for Saarc before handing over the chairmanship to Bangladesh. Just a couple of months back, Pakistan had circulated among member states a paper outlining specific steps in this connection.

Vital issues pertaining to project cooperation, poverty alleviation, Safta - that is supposed to become operational in 2006 - and implementation mechanisms that were to be discussed at the 13th summit will now suffer a major setback.

Indian withdrawal from the Dhaka summit has also delayed the signing of two important agreements, one on mutual administrative assistance in customs matters and the other on avoidance of double taxation which were expected to be adopted there. Also, it has put on hold a number of important proposals for joint projects under the Saarc Social Charter, particularly in the areas of health and technical education.

Proposals that Pakistan planned to put on the table included setting up a Saarc cancer hospital, a Saarc medical university and a Saarc IT institute, which would have been of benefit to all member states. A proposal for establishing a Saarc poverty alleviation fund was also on the cards and Pakistan had already circulated a concept paper on the subject among the members.

An important proposal for putting in place an Asia-wide early warning and disaster response regime too was to be taken up at the summit. Soon after the deadly earthquake and tsunami that hit the region late December, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, in his capacity as Saarc chairman, had called for evolving such a mechanism to cope with such disasters in the future.

Although Pakistan has said that it would soon initiate a consultation process for the 13th summit's new schedule, officials say privately that they have decided to adopt a 'wait and watch' policy. They are clear that the government will not take any initiative at this point to propose new dates for the twice-postponed summit. So for the time-being it will not approach any member state and would leave it to Bangladesh to propose the new dates.

Their hunch is that it will be all quiet on the Saarc front for at least six months or so. A simple explanation is that the reasons cited by India for not attending the summit cannot go away quickly. However, one thing that is clear is the fact that the 13th summit will have to be held in Dhaka. Those involved in the Saarc process say under no circumstances can the venue be changed, unless the country concerned expresses its inability to host it.

Saarc was launched in December 1985 with the objective of promoting the welfare of the peoples of South Asia and to improve their quality of life through accelerated economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region. Two decades on, not a single joint project has been launched by the seven member-states, and political disputes continue to thwart the Saarc process.