KARACHI - Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that time is money and it should be used in the best way to pass on its benefits to others.
He said this while speaking as chief guest at the 41st death anniversary of renowned short story writer Naseem Kharal here at the Karachi Arts Council. The programme was hosted by the Culture Department and was attended by MPA Naeem Kharl, Education Minister Syed Sardar Shah, Food Minister Hari Ram, Imdad Husseni, Noorul Huda Shah, Shaukat Shoro, MPA Qasim Soomro, MPA Sohrab Sarki and a large number of leading writer and poets.
Shah said it had become a fashion to start programmes late but it was tantamount to wasting your time and resources and causing inconvenience to others. “We as a nation must resolve today to be punctual in life, in our work and in our services whatever we are doing,” he said. He said that Naseem Kharal made the best use of his time in his agricultural work and in literary work and translated all his personal experiences into short stories. He said that Naseem Kharal was a leading short story writer. “His work was less in quantity as he wrote just 32 stories, but it was very rich in quality. Quality of his work was considered to be of international standard therefore his stories were included in the textbooks of universities,” he said.
Shah said that Naseem Kharal’s stories reflected issues of the class system in the society and he tried in his literary works to bring an end to stratification. “Naseem Kharal through characters in his stories has exposed tyrannies of the feudal and talked about rights of the poor,” he said. Naseem Kharal was killed to stop his pen from highlighting issues of the voiceless, but his literary work was still alive and spoke loud for the oppressed. Later, Shah attended a programme of the United Memon Jamat at a local hotel. He appreciated the Memon community for their contribution to all sectors, especially education, health, trade and commerce and social work. He said that Memon Jamat has been serving the community for the last 40 years.
Shah said the public-private partnership was a success story of his government and he would work with Memon Jamat in the water sector. He said that some people were saying Karachiites were generous in giving Zakat and charity but they were reluctant to pay taxes.
This impression is wrong, he said. “It is Karachi’s traders and businessmen who were contributing a lot to government taxes,” he said.