By Our Staff Reporter  2024-05-04

L AHORE: A Punjabi book titled, Alif Allah RataDilMera,byZubair Ahmedwaslaunched at the Punjab Institute of Language, Art and Culture (Pilac) on Friday.

The launch was presided over by novelist Nain Sukh.

Speaking on the occasion, Sarwat Suhail, an educationist from Gujranwala, said Punjabi should be taught in schools. She emphasized the importance of the language and shared with the audience how she had translated English plays into Punjabi.

Nain Sukh said Zubair had a great passion for working for the promotion of Punjabi language and he explored it through poetry, story writing or research. He said Zubair had written a thought-provoking and informative article on Bhagat Kabir in his book. He regretted that very little work had been done on Kabir in Punjabi though he had a great stature.

Dr Nabila Rehman also lauded the author, saying very few books of literary criticism had been written in Punjabi and there was aneed for such criticism with a balanced approach. She termed Zubair`s book a great contribution to Punjabi literary criticism.

Publisher Aamir Riaz said it was a difficult task to understand history through poetry. He called the work important because the author had focused on Bhagat Kabir, Bulleh Shah, Shah Hussain and Najm Hosain Syed. He said Zubair had discussed history of Punjab from 12th century to 16th century, including theissues of conversions.

Writer Iqbal Qaiser termed the book thought-provoking from its first chapter to the last. He said the writer had written an important article on Bhagat Kabir while other chapters also revealed the classical literary tradition. However, he added, the critics should look at what was being written by writers and poets in present day Punjab.

Poet Ghulam Hussian Sajid said he had a long association of 51 years with Zubair and through his book he had cleared confusions about some historical issues. Like Qaiser, he also underlined the need to write literary criticism on contemporary literature.

Zubair recollected memories of the Pak Tea House of 1974-75 when he wrote his first Punjabi poem. He said when he entered the world of Punjabi literature in the 1970s, every new writer was supposed to interact with five legends, namely Najm Hosain Syed, Asif Khan, Shafgat Tanvir Mirza and Raja Rasalu. He threw light on different chapters of his book.

Poet Talat Naveed, Iqbal Haider Butt and Ilyas Ghumman also spoke.

At the end, awards and shields were awarded to the speakers.