Writers regret societal confusion | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Writers regret societal confusion

Pakistan Press Foundation

PESHAWAR: “The worst thing in evaluating the impacts of 9/11 on Urdu poetry and even our whole social life is that we are not completely aware of the details of the 9/11; rather deliberate confusion has befogged the minds of our writers and they have no unanimous view on the war on terror,” a known poet and scholar Prof Dr Tajjuddin Tajwar said this on Sunday.

In his lecture at Saleem Raz Hall, Research Library Peshawar, Tajjuddin said, “Even conferring of Nobel Prize on Malala Yousafzai is not liked by common people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA and it is considered as a western trick against Islam. This is the result of our societal confusion about war on terror.

The 9/11 has become a metaphor of confusion and colossal money is being used for it by neo-colonialism.” The scholars are seriously divided on the reality of 9/11 episode in Pakistan and that’s why there is conceptual confusion on how to respond to its after-effects, he commented. The speaker, however, traced the effects and changes on Urdu poetry and said, “Enormous literature is being produced but it is just symbolic and due to confusion no one has reached any answer to the problems we face today.”

Prof Sher Alam said that incident of 9/11 and its aftermath are so piercing that people are suffering from physical and psychological frustration and that’s why the use of tranquillisers has been seriously increased in KP and FATA.

Prof Hanif Khalil of Quaid-e-Azam University said that not only Urdu poetry but also literature of all local languages and almost all means of journalism and communication have outright been changed due to enormous foreign money and international pressure. He said, “9/11 has changed our heroes into villains and villains into heroes which is the saddest phase of our history.”

Dr Fasihuddin commented on the recent books of Dr Daniel Markey, Carlotta Gall, Bruce Riedel, Stephen Cohen, Robert Gates and Cristine C Fair, which show how Pakistan is depicted in international literature.

He said, “Just a few days back ex-US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta in his recent book ‘Worthy Wars’ has predicted that Daaish (ISIS) will be a phenomenon for the next 30 years which means that the war on terror has no end up to the first half of the 21st Century.”

Chairman World Pashto Congress Saleem Raz said no matter whether fire is burning in Syria or Iraq, the Pashtuns are affected a lot and it is time that Pashtuns should get united to address the impacts of war on terror as 9/11 was a political issue and it needs a political response and the intellectuals should play their role in this regard.

The Nation