In a letter under the caption ‘Naming Model Town Underpass’ which appeared in your letters on November 28, the residents of Model Town have suggested that the under pass should be named after Abul Asar Hafeez Jallundari whose residential period in Model Town was much longer than Faiz Ahmad Faiz. No one can deny the stature and fame of Hafeez Jallundary as a scholar of Urdu language and a great poet. He also deserves all the respect for being the author of Pakistan’s national anthem. Whose name the underpass carries is immaterial but the letter writer’s attempt to disgrace a great poet like Faiz Ahmed Faiz is, however not bearable, for those who love his poetry.
The writer has condemned Faiz because he was sentenced to imprisonment during Ayub Khan’s martial law regime, for his inclination towards communism. The political system not yet having gained enough strength, it was a time when concepts of communism, socialism and others were trying to make inroads in Pakistan making people sway in different directions. Under such conditions declaring Faiz Ahmed Faiz disloyal to Pakistan is not justified.
As soon as the political system gained solid ground with a number of political parties appearing on the scene the politicians going to jail for one reason or the other became a routine. Many of them later emerged as great leaders. Even a stage came when the ‘political imprisonment’ became more of a reward than punishment. Keeping in view all this, challenging the integrity of a great poet who is the heart throb of millions of Pakistanis, who are fascinated by his romantic verses, and whose contribution to Urdu literature is immense is like hurting his departed soul.
RAFI NASIM,
Lahore, December 8.