\n Shafqat Tanvir Mirza<\/span> <\/p>\n\n
\n <\/div>\n
\n
SAUDA QABRAN DA by Ilyas Ghumman; pp142; price Rs125; Idara Punjabi
\n Zaban Tey Saqafat, 24 Ameer Road, Bilal Ganj, Lahore. <\/p>\n
I LYAS Ghumman is an engineer by profession. He holds a degree from
\n an engineering college in Karachi. During the period he was studying
\n there a popular slogan made the rounds in the Sindh capital: <\/p>\n
Sindhi, mohajir bhai bhai Dhoti, naswar kahan sey aai This indicated
\n the venom some of the Karachiites were made to spill against Punjabis
\n and Pathans, fuelled by the then dictator Gen Ziaul Haq, who was trying
\n his best to fan provincialism and ethnic intolerance. The purpose was to
\n dampen the PPP\ufffds popularity among Punjabis, and to create a rift between
\n Punjab and Sindh. Zia\ufffds obsession with the PPP was so obvious that after
\n hanging Z A Bhutto, he wanted to crush his party which was then believed
\n to be the only party representing the downtrodden in all the four
\n provinces, particularly in Punjab where protest against the execution of
\n Bhutto was unprecedented. <\/p>\n
Though the parliamentary PPP was dominated by feudals from Sindh and
\n from southern Punjab, people at a grass roots level had a significant
\n role to play. The local elections of 1979 presented the solid proof when
\n the Awam-dost candidates swept the poll, particularly in Punjab and
\n Sindh. <\/p>\n
The hate campaign against Punjabis in Karachi and other urban centres
\n of Sindh turned the younger lot into nationalists and Ilyas Ghumman was
\n no exception. He, with collaboration from other Punjabi students,
\n compiled a Punjabi magazine,Sohni Dharti, a thick volume ever-published
\n from Karachi. That was his first love with Punjab and its language. <\/p>\n
After completing his education, he came to Lahore, joined at
\n Wazirabad, his ancestral tehsil town, and started work for the promotion
\n of Punjabi language and literature. He was transferred to Lahore which
\n provided him a good opportunity to make contribution to the cause. He
\n established a publishing house, started publication of a monthly
\n magazine and special annual issues under the name of Sahit. <\/p>\n
He also compiled and published some small books on science and
\n technology. Then he turned to literature and contributed three
\n collections of short stories to Punjabi. He also served as correspondent
\n of a Jallunder daily Ajeet. <\/p>\n
He was hauled up by Pakistani intelligence agencies and tortured in
\n the traditional style. But nothing was proved against him and after a
\n week or so he was set free. In those days another Punjabi scholar, Syed
\n Sibtul Hasan Zaigham, also became the victim of the agencies. Ilyas
\n continued his crusade, and with this book he emerged as a polished
\n playwright \ufffd he had not touched the genre so far. <\/p>\n
The play opens with a debate on the preservation of cultural
\n heritage, including the people\ufffds language and literature. The pivotal
\n character of the play is Jamal Nasir Mufti, once a small land holder in
\n a rural area locat ed around a big city. He sold all his land for giving
\n higher education to his only son Sajid. In the process, he also worked
\n as a vegetable vendor. All his efforts came to fruition when his son got
\n a good job. But the son married Rubina, who belonged to a nouveau-riche
\n background. <\/p>\n
Sajid and particularly Rubina, therefore, began refusing to adjust
\n with the Punjabi-speaking old-fashioned Mufti, who insisted that
\n children studying in a modern English medium school should not forget
\n their humble past and the language of the people. The old man remains
\n popular with his grandchildren, and that annoys Rubina who ultimately
\n succeeds in forcing Mufti to move out. Mufti has no place to go, so he
\n ends up living with the homeless in parks and other public places. <\/p>\n
One fine morning the son and the daughter-in-law come to the old man
\n with the good news that a housing society has purchased all the lands
\n and residential quarters of their ancestral village except their
\n particular section of it, and for which the society is ready to pay Rs17
\n million. <\/p>\n
Sajid tells the father that he has accepted a sum of Rs5 million as
\n seed money. Now old Mufti should sign the deed because it is his
\n property. Mufti is astonished at the deal because in the old \ufffdAhata\ufffd
\n also lie the graves of the family elders, including that of Sajid\ufffds
\n mother, Mufti\ufffds wife. <\/p>\n
He flatly refuses to sell the graveyard, and immediately thereafter
\n hands over the \ufffdAhata\ufffd to a charity trust. This enrages the son. He gets
\n his father killed through the so-called \ufffdPathhar\ufffd group criminals, while
\n the victim sleeps in a public park. Thus, the tussle between those who
\n want to preserve heritage and those who are ready to sell out even the
\n graves of their elders, comes to an end. <\/p>\n
______________________________________<\/p>\n
Monthly Punjabi international, edited by Junaid Akram; pp100; price
\n Rs100; published from B-2, 125\/3, Township, Lahore. <\/p>\n
Monthly Savair International; edited by Jamil Ahmad Pal: pp84; price
\n Rs25; published from 7-A, Street 6, Kucha Muhammadi, Sultanpura, Lahore. <\/p>\n
Monthly Pukheroo; edited by Ashraf Sohail; pp84; price Rs30;
\n published from Street no 64, Tajpura Road, Mughalpura, Lahore. <\/p>\n
A LL these monthlies, and Lehran and Likhari are Punjabi magazines
\n which are being regularly published from Lahore. Punjabi\ufffds no 35 is a
\n special issue on the renowned na\ufffdat writer, the late Prof Hafeez Ta\ufffdib,
\n who died on June 12, 2004. The longest and very interesting, informative
\n article is by Ashgar Ali Nizami who remembers the visits of Hafeez to
\n Madina. <\/p>\n
Jamil Pal has produced the 100th issue of Savair, which he started
\n some 12 years ago and has continuously produced quality paper adding to
\n the prestige of Punjabi literary journalism. <\/p>\n
Pukheroo is a monthly magazine for children which is being
\n single-handedly managed by Ashraf Sohail for last 11 years. The issue
\n under review is devoted to poetry for children by prominent poet Abdul
\n Karim Qudsi. <\/p>\n
Juniad Akram, Jamil Pal and Ashraf Sohail, all, with rare qualities,
\n are committed to the promotion of Punjabi.\ufffdSTM<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n
\nBACK TO APNA WEB PAGE<\/a><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dawn: May 5, 2006 Shafqat Tanvir Mirza SAUDA QABRAN DA by Ilyas Ghumman; pp142; price Rs125; Idara Punjabi Zaban Tey Saqafat, 24 Ameer Road, Bilal Ganj, Lahore. I LYAS Ghumman is an engineer by profession. He holds a degree from an engineering college in Karachi. During the period he was studying there a popular […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","columnist":[4092],"class_list":["post-83508","columns","type-columns","status-publish","hentry","columnist-stmirza"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnaorg.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/columns\/83508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnaorg.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/columns"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnaorg.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/columns"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnaorg.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"columnist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnaorg.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/columnist?post=83508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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