KARACHI: A seminar on Faiz Ahmed Faiz (1911-1984), eulogising his person and poetry, was jointly held by the Academy Adbiat-i-Pakistan and the Pakistan Arts Council, with Dr Shanul Haq Haqqi in the chair.

Mushtaq Ahmad Yusfi read out passages from his article written some years back and reproduced by a publication— Raushan Pakistan. Its copies were distributed among the audience.

Another paper was presented by Shaheda Hasan. Afaq Siddiqui and Prof Saher Ansari, in their brief speeches, paid tributes to the poet, remembering his personal qualities.

Faiz, most speakers believed, was not just an Urdu poet from Pakistan, but a spokesman for the oppressed of the world; he was loved and admired for his ideological commitment.

Dr Haqqi lauded Yusfi’s article and recalled his own association with Faiz that spread over six decades. He met Faiz first in 1940 when Naqsh-i-Faryadi had appeared. Their association strengthened with the passage of time.

Dr Haqqi lamented the degradation of Pakistan’s national language and the miserable fate of the other Pakistani languages because of the supremacy of English.

He said the language in the media, spoken and written, was a hotchpotch, a mixture of English and Urdu.

Dr Haqqi expressed the apprehension that an effort was being made to gradually introduce English and dislodge Urdu once for all from its popular status.

“If this comes to happen. then who is going to read Faiz and appreciate his fascinating poetry. Pakistan is rich in its cultural heritage and every Pakistani should be proud of it, but without a language of your own the culture with all its richness is meaningless,” he said.

Haqqi’s comment on Faiz’s poetry as “a balanced association of romanticism and revolution” was received with clapping.

But the louder clapping was saved for Yusfi whose paper, blended with humour and satire, presented a very true portrait of Faiz: a noble, soft-spoken, humane and loving person; strong in his ideological commitment; tolerant cool and composed in the worst of circumstances; he did not lose his optimism even in the period he spent in exile.

Yusfi, in the concluding passages of his article, critically examined Faiz’s poetry; the softness, the pathos and the thread of romanticism running through it. Yusfi’s paper was undoubtedly a masterpiece of literary criticism.

Shahed Hasan’s paper was a nice piece of lyrical prose based on some famous verses of Faiz.

The tributes paid to Faiz by poets Khalid Alig and Jamil Mazher in verses were well received by the audience.

Earlier, Naqqash Kazmi, who did the compering, briefly spoke about Faiz and his days in Karachi.

How and in what circumstances Faiz was forced to return his Lenin Peace Prize and leave for Islamabad was described by Prof Saher Ansari who also informed the audience that Faiz’s poetry had also been translated into the Japanese language.

Agha Noor Mohammad Pathan, Resident Director Adbiat, spoke on Faiz, and shed light on the role of Adbiat in promoting literary activities. — Hasan Abidi