Jalib’s magic lives on
Zaib Azkaar Hussain
Karachi: Once an eminent writer and a leading communist, Syed Sibte Hasan, had observed that Habib Jalib, whose 18th death anniversary falls today, was a poet of the people.
Jalib never cared about his future, nor that of his family’s, and fought on relentlessly to change society so that the common man could live a peaceful life.
Jalib and his family went through great hardships during his struggle, and these trials and tribulations that the poet of the people went through as well as the sacrifices he made endeared him to the people, and this infatuation has lasted even after the man had gone.
A programme has been arranged at the Arts Council at 6.00pm today to observe Jalib’s death anniversary.
The function is being hosted by Saeed Pervaiz, younger brother of Habib Jalib, who himself is a writer.
Justice (Retd.) Wajihuddin Ahmed, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Mir Hasil Bizenjo, Dr Abdul Hai Baloch, Muslim Shamim, Mamnoon Hussain, Shamshirul Haideri, Shahida Hasan, Habibuddin Junaidi, Manzoor Razi, Aqeel Abbas Jaffery and Iqbal Lateef will during the programme throw light on the revolutionary work of Jalib.
Three noted poets, Naqash Kazimi, Arif Mansoor and Jawaid Saba, will be paying poetic tributes to Jalib.
According to Syed Sibte Hasan, if a truly people’s poet in Urdu was ever born after Nazir Akbarabadi it was Habib Jalib who managed to express the sadness, the pain, the voice and the desires of the common people.
And if the multitude of people adulated Jalib, then this love and this infatuation was not without a cause. Habib Jalib had created such a poetic style that highly fascinated the people who used his couplets as “slogans” against the dictatorships in the country.
Habib Jalib was born on March 24, 1928, in a village near Hoshiarpur. He migrated to Pakistan after the partition.
According to the critics, Habib Jalib was a poet who had a command over creating wonderful ghazals that fulfilled all the requirements of “taghazul” and a true lyrical power.
He had been very vocal in resisting the martial laws of Generals Ayub Khan and Zia-ul-Haq. No wonder the poet was victimized and kept under detention for his defiance.
He was also detained during the government of Z. A. Bhutto for his famous “Larkana chalo, warna thane chalo”. Jalib always spoke against feudal lords and capitalists. Ironically, many influential people, like the Chief Minister of Punjab, Mian Shahbaz Sharif, also chose to recite Jalib’s poetry in several of his political meetings.
Chaudhry Aitezaz Ahsan has adopted the same style of poetry, and one of his poems which became very popular in the last days of Musharraf’s rule revived the memory of Jalib in people’s minds.
Ahsan was a close friend of Habib Jalib.
Source: The News
Date:4/30/2011
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