KARACHI: ‘Dohay’ by famous poet Jamiluddin Aali was launched on Saturday. The comparatively new poetic form in Urdu was introduced by Aali, the speakers said and professed that he was decidedly the founder of this genre and as such the “greatest among all the doha poets in the subcontinent.”

Sponsored by the Daira-i-Adab-o-Saqafat (International) and Dhaka Group of Institutions, the function was presided over by Dr Farman Fatehpuri. Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad was the chief guest while the learned speakers included Prof Fateh Mohammad Malik, President National Language Authority, Dr Aslam Farrukhi, Jamal Panipati and Shaheda Hasan.

Daira president Azfar Rizvi, who was host of the evening, presented welcome address to the chief guest profusely admiring his keen interest shown in the development of literature and art and patronage to the writers and their institutions.

Dr Farman paying tributes to Aali Saheb for his contribution to different literary forms apart from his dohas, “the best in Urdu”, he refuted the general observation that this poetic form with Hindi idioms was borrowed from Hindi language. There was no such thing as Hindi language. With the support of Sanskrit and other languages spoken in the region, a new language later named Hindi was formed to combat Urdu, Dr Farman said.

Earlier, Shaheda Hasan had said that Mr Aali cloaked Hindi’s poetic form with Urdu words and phrases and thus converted it into Urdu, to the extent that now the poet and his poetry both had become identical.

However, much admiration came from Dr Ishratul Ibad and also Prof Fateh Mohammad Malik was for Aali’s patriotic songs, especially for Jeevay Jeevay Pakistan, which came to the rescue of a shattered nation — Pakistan at its most trying moment after the fall of Dacca.

Dr Ibad admired Mr Aali for his songs and was so overwhelmed by his dohay that he recited some of his own couplets, finding the crowd so receptive. Aali Saheb at the instance of the chief guest presented his dohay with ‘tarannum’ and the audience gave him an outstanding ovation.

Fateh Mohammad Malik read out a part of his essay that he had written for Mr Aali some three years ago. He praised his poetry, travelogues, ‘Izhariay’, columns and prefaces on various books as his activism to the benefit of writer’s community. Mr Aali’s songs, patriotic prose and poetic writings had a profound effect on the nation’s morale and his role in this regard was historic, Malik said. He was a trend setter and his dohay covered social issues and problems of common people, as against the ‘classical’ dohay.

Dr Aslam Farrukhi read out a character sketch of Mr Aali in his fascinating prose. Mr Javed Manzer, who did the compering, recited three couplets from another noted doha poet Ilyas Ishqi, he had received on telephone from Hyderabad paying his complements to the senior poet ‘Aali’. —HA