Memoirs of senior journalist launched | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Memoirs of senior journalist launched

Pakistan Press Foundation

A book titled ‘Khwab Ley Lo Khwab’, a collection of random memoirs of Shahid Husain, a veteran journalist working with The News, was launched at the Karachi Press Club on Saturday evening.

Random as they may be, the memoirs outline Husain’s ideological idealism and his quest for a society based on justice and egalitarianism.

A number of intellectuals and journalists spoke on the occasion.

Hameed Haroon, the CEO of the Dawn Group of Publications, described Husain as a conscientious, industrious, and sincere person.

“I do not know him as a rebel. I know him as a highly objective person,” he said.

“There are journalists who may not be the icons of journalism in the computer age, but they have very sublime values.”

Muhammad Ali Siddiqui, a veteran journalist, lauded Husain’s idealism and determination manifest in the torture he had suffered at the hands of the state for speaking up for the oppressed. In this context, he specially mentioned Husain’s incarceration at the hands of the state for demonstrating against the government of the day at the time of the East Pakistan insurgency.

He mentioned a particular incident when Husain was roughed up by law enforcement agencies’ personnel after they manipulated an altercation with him during a curfew. Besides, he mentioned other incidents where Husain had to face violence fighting for the rights of the oppressed.

However, he also had a word of advice for Husain – that while writing, he must try to keep himself in the background as much as possible and project the event or the idea rather than self. He also gave Shahid other tips in writing.

“Being a martial race just doesn’t imply violence. One doesn’t have to foist violence on his compatriots just to prove the martial nature of his race,” said Siddiqui.

“Because of the feudal dispensation and the feudal and tribal values that have gripped our society in their tentacles, violence has come to be an every day occurrence, often under the misnomer of martial race.”

Ahfazur Rehman, a senior journalist, said the book highlighted the struggles of the workers, the peasants, and the marginalised.

“We all launched the dream of equality and egalitarianism. Today the situation has changed. Today we have bomb blasts and the rape of five-year old girls. The idealists have started capitulating to the Taliban,” he noted.

Rehman lamented that today’s generation were just not aware of the idealism and honesty of the purpose of their predecessors.

“We should be a living nation, for our women, our children, and for posterity. Come on Shahid, keep your dreams alive,” Rehman exhorted in a dramatic manner. However, Rehman was also of the opinion that the book was written in haste.

Haris Gazdar, an economist and researcher, lauded Husain for being a real “comrade”.

“There are people who just live to exist but there are people who have an innate desire to change the world, the condition of the masses, for the better,” he said.

Gazdar placed Husain in the latter category. He also lauded Husain’s pieces on environmental degradation, saying that they made really profound reading.

Dr Ayesha Mehnaz, a paediatrician, lauded Husain for having written so candidly in his reports about the condition of children and the tortures inflicted on them.

She asked him to write more on the subject, given his clarity of vision on the issue.

Dr Syed Ali Wasif congratulated Husain on his venture and recalled his involvement in the struggle for the restoration of social values.

Abid Ali Syed, a journalist-turned-academician, said Husain’s book was a profound comment on the way torture and oppression had come to be synonymous with our country.

“However, the silver lining to the dark cloud is that Shahid has never given up.”

Husain, acknowledging the accolades heaped on him, disagreed that the book was written in haste and said that it was just an articulation of his thoughts on various issues.

Besides, he said: “If a man aligns himself with nature, it has a very tranquilising effect.” In this context, he cited a visit to a beach.

The News


2 Responses so far.

  1. I am a veteran journalist, writer and a peace activist based in the sprawling port city of Karachi, the financial hub of a beautiful country called Pakistan. Currently I am in Canada working on my fourth book based on my hypothesis, “Relationship between Nature and Homo-sapiens.” I hope to write a 100-page book if all goes well. Paul Brown has written the preface of my fourth book. I have widely traveled as a journalist and bagged both national and international awards. My three books have been published and received well. I have been writing on climate change and global warming since 1997 when I attended a workshop on environment in port city Karachi conducted by Paul Brown then environment correspondent in London of The guardian newspaper. The workshop was held under the aegis of Commonwealth Journalists’ Association (CJA) led by SM Fazal, my editor at Daily News, Jang group’s evening newspaper and Hamdan Amjad Ali, my colleague at weekly Pakistan & Gulf Economist. My hypothesis has been approved by three eminent scientists and educationists.

  2. I am a veteran journalist, writer and a peace activist based in the sprawling port city of Karachi, the financial hub of Pakistan. Currently I am in Canada working on my fourth book.