Whoever thought that there was a time in the history of Indo-Pak ties when the two countries had warm relations should try and revisit newspaper back-numbers, because that has never been the case. Pakistan and India have never seen eye to eye not only on political issues but also on matters that fall under the literary domain. Check this out: on May 8, 1965, the president of the Anjuman Taraqqi-i-Urdu, Akhtar Husain, issued a statement accusing some Indian publishers of piracy, saying they were violating the copyrights of Pakistani writers and organisations. And he had solid reasons.

According to Mr Husain, there were books (such as the English-Urdu dictionary published by the Karachi-based anjuman) that Indian companies had put out in the market claiming them as their own publications. Not just that, there were poetry collections of Iqbal and a few other noted poets which they had introduced as their own books.

Mr Husain made an appeal to Pakistani booksellers not to import and sell works of Pakistani writers published in India without authorisation. Even if the booksellers did not lend an ear to him, a few months later, as a war between the two neighbouring nations broke out, Indian imports of any kind would have become a big ‘no-no’.

That week, a couple of other important literary and academic events also grabbed the headlines. One of them was to do with the visit of deputy speaker of Iranian Majlis Dr Husain Khatibi. He was in Karachi leading a four-member cultural delegation. On May 9, while giving an interview to APP at the State Guest House, Dr Khatibi made an interesting remark. He said one-third literature in the Persian language was contributed by those belonging to areas that now formed Pakistan. He stressed that frequent cultural exchanges were needed to deepen this Pak-Iran connection. In case you are wondering what the situation was in Yemen at the time and its impact on Pakistan and Iran, well, it is irrelevant. Or is it?

Dr Khatibi’s claim was a matter of historical evidence. In all probability, he was right. Speaking of history, on May 7, vice chancellor of University of Karachi Dr Ishtiaq Husain Quraishi inaugurated the 15th History Conference on university campus. In his speech, he sounded pretty disappointed with the Pakistan Archives and Historical Record Commission which was constituted in the early 1950s. He lamented its “idleness” and said: “It’s sad that such an organ has been reduced to utter inactivity because of negligence.” Elaborating on his complaint, he said: “Posterity will not forgive the historians of Pakistan for their dereliction of duty in permitting the original source material of the history of their country without making any effort to salvage it.” Wow! These are tough words. Alas, little did Dr Quraishi know that not much would change after half a century.

But then, on the flip side, Pakistan was moving forward in terms of infrastructural development. For example, on May 4, Airport Development Authority GM Ekramul Haque, at the PIA headquarters, announced that four more international airports — two in each wing — would be constructed in the country as part of the third five-year plan. The cities where airports would be built were: Chittagong, Khulna, Rawalpindi and Lahore. Khulna? Doesn’t that ring a bell? It does. The first Test match between Pakistan and Bangladesh’s cricket teams in the ongoing series (2015) was held in the very same city. We are no longer one country.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2015

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