PESHAWAR: The panelists, at a monthly study circle, have called upon Pashto fiction writers to unfold the hidden agenda of obscurant’s evil designs in the society and help build a peace narrative.
The Bacha Khan Trust Educational Foundation (BKTEF) brought together young panelists on Sunday at University Peshawar to discuss various aspects of a Pashto novel ‘Baghdadi Pir’ authored by an Afghan writer, Naseer Ahmad Ahmadi with a setting in the early 20th century of Afghanistan, when Ghazi Amanullah Khan (1892-1960) ruled over the country as a powerful king from 1926 to 1929.
Participants from Peshawar, Mardan, Swat, Charsadda, Swabi, Hangu, Dir, Waziristan, Khyber Agency, Momand Agency and Tank attended the event.
Panelists said that Pashto fiction writers and poets should bring out issues of the poor masses in their writings to pave way for a forward-looking society. They said a peace narrative could only be evolved if extremist elements were discouraged at every level. “Our writers and poets should come forward to give a due place in their writings to voice people’s real issues sand educate them on social, cultural and political problems,” they stated.
Tariq Pakhtunyar, a young university student while reading out the plot of the novel under debate said that the celebrated Afghan writer had set his book in Ghazi Amanullah Khan’s era when British officials had planted David Jones in the guise of a spiritual guide who had been tasked to mould public opinion against the revolutionary reforms of the progressive Afghan ruler.
Mr Pakhtunyar said the parallels of such obscurantist elements were still operating in our society to exploit religious and cultural sentiments of people for achieving their own nefarious deigns. He said King Amanullah wanted to set up a pluralistic society and had introduced educational, economical and free reforms in synch with modern age. He said Ghazi Amanullah and his wife, Soraya Tarzi had done much in Afghanistan for girl’s education and free trade.
Mehnaz, a social activist from Swat said fiction writers should highlight such dark faces who deceived people in the name of religion to get their goals through their negative propaganda against progressive thinking. She said characters of ‘Baghdadi Pir’ were still busy in our surrounding to spread their obscurant’s views to stop people to live with peace and justice. She said the role of the intriguing Baghdadi Pir was still alive to stop girl’s education.
Suleman Yousafzai, another young participant said people needed a strong counter narrative to defeat extremism and militancy which never wanted progressive thoughts in the society to prevail and literati must expose such characters so that people could know about their evil designs. He said incorrect knowledge about religion; poverty and practicing outdated traditions were a few hurdles in the way of a setting up of a just society.
Madeeha, in her remarks pointed out that open discussion could us to a deep understanding of the functioning of such anti-society elements. She said David Jones, in the guise of a spiritual guide had in fact exploited the misinterpretation of religion at the hands of so called religious clerics. She said there were many fanatics in our society who didn’t favour girl’s education and women’s rights.
Afsar Afghan, Abdur Rauf Yousafzai, Bahar Wazir, Emad Khalil, Shuakat Swati, Arshad Saleem, Shakeela, and Tahira also participated in the discussion.
Winding up the debate, Prof Khadim Hussain said British imperialists were afraid of King Amanullah Khan’s revolutionary reforms because they thought that a powerful Afghan government could pose a serious threat to existence in British India. He said similarly, obscurants considered enlightenment, religious tolerance and especially empowerment of women a threat to their vested interests.
Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2017