Noted Pashto poet, writer Nisar Mazloom passes away
[12.Dec.2008 - 21:24]The News - PESHAWAR: Noted Pashto writer, poet, columnist Nisar Mazloom breathed his lost here Thursday. The funeral prayers were offered at the Academy Town and he was laid to rest at his ancestral graveyard. A large number of people from different walks of life attended the last funeral of the eminent writer. Nisar Mazloom, a Pakhtun nationalist who was a former producer of the state-run radio, was considered an expert on Afghan affairs as he spent a long time in exile in Afghanistan during Zulfikar Ali Bhutto government. He used to write columns for different national Urdu dailies and had made a distinctive place for himself for his vast knowledge of Afghan affairs. A collection of his columns — Estighasa — was published recently. He was also a good drama writer and served other fields of life as well. He always called for cordial relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan and his columns supported the stance. Meanwhile, different liter-ary organisations have been grieved at the death of the writer and termed his death a great loss. ´´The vacuum created due to Mazloom’s death will be filled in years,´´ observed people from various walks of life, including writers and journalists, while commenting on his death. They said the death of scholarly man like Mazoom was a great loss to the Pakhtuns, adding he spent his entire life while serving his people and the country. ´´He will be remembered for his services for a long time,´´ they observe while expressing grief and sorrow over the death of the Mazloom. PESHAWAR: The death of noted Pashto writer, poet, columnist and intellectual, Nisar Mazloom, has deprived us of a progressive leader at a time when Pakhtuns are passing though a critical juncture of their history. Hailing from the politically fertile land of Charsadda, Nisar Ahmad Khan, commonly known as Nisar Mazloom, served his people for long with a wish to see cordial relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan. He was born in 1935 to a famous writer, poet and political figure, Abdul Karim Mazloom, and did graduation from Mardan Government College. He joined the state-run radio as Pashto Programme Producer when he was an MA English student at the Karachi University. Serving Radio Pakistan for 15 years, the Pakhtun nationalist left his job after disagreeing to the policies of the then Pakistan People’s Party government led by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and sought asylum in Afghanistan. On his return from Kabul, Mazloom started contributing columns for different national Urdu dailies and continued with that till his last. Due to his vast knowledge of Afghan affairs, his columns were very popular and were liked by the readers. Being a man of many facets, he used to write on social, political issues and problems of the region as well as international political scene. The collection of his columns — Estighasa — was published recently. He was also a good playwright besides serving the Pakhtun society in other fields of life. Mazloom always wished cordial relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan that was evident from his columns. However, his dream could not materialize due to the conspiracies of vested interest. The eminent intellectual breathed his last on Thursday after a protected illness. He was admitted to Hayatabad Medical Complex as he was asthmatic. He was shifted to his home at Academy Town three days before saying goodbye to this mortal world. According to Dr Raj Wali Shah Khattak, chairman of the Pashto Department, University of Peshawar, sincere leaders and intellectuals like Nisar Mazloom were born in centauries. “Mazloom was a man of principles who never compromised the rights of oppressed people even at a time when Pakhtuns are passing through ideological crisis, he added. The Pashto department chief said Nisar suffered from cruelties of different nature, but never surrendered and raised voice for the rights of his people through his pen and from other platforms. Raj Wali said the vacuum created due to Mazloom’s death would take decades to fill and his death was a great loss to the Pakhtuns. Prof Abaseen Yousufzai, another noted Pashto writer, said Mazloom always spoke and wrote the truth and raised voice for the Pakhtun cause. The grooming of intellectuals and leaders like Mazloom takes 80 to 100 years, he observed. Abaseen said Nisar was the only person after late Sher Ali Bacha who had a vision of Pakhtuns prosperity. His death is a great loss for the Pakhtuns, he added. Abaseen said Mazloom never always stuck to his principles and served the Pakhtuns to the best of his abilities. Nisar: Mazloom in life, zalim in death City diary By Afzal Hussain Bokhari As long as the food lasted, he did not say anything that his guests could even remotely describe as political. In order to celebrate the appointment of his daughter Mahwash as a teacher, he had thrown a sumptuous lunch in honour of her school principal and a couple of senior colleagues. Except for occasionally prompting the guests to eat well, he hardly did anything else. To random questions from guests, he offered brief, relevant and thought-provoking answers. In between the conversation, the intellectual in him peeped out but he was not the type to make a show of his intellect, at least in front of others. Nisar Ahmad Khan who, as a gesture of solidarity with the less privileged and the downtrodden people of the earth, refused to call himself a Khan and adopted the suffix of Mazloom which if put into English roughly meant the wronged one. Indeed the visible and invisible wrongs done to him by society, system and the surroundings were countless. However, the sudden manner in which he bowed out of life and left his admirers friendless on the occasion of Eidul Azha, he according to a Pushto idiom could perhaps be described as ´zalim´. Born in Tangi near Charsadda in 1935, Nisar did his graduation from Mardan Government (formerly Akbar Memorial) College. When the Indo-Pak subcontinent was still united, Nisar´s father Abdul Karim Mazloom used to write and broadcast a column from All India Radio, Delhi. Television had not yet arrived and radio had a sizeable listenership among the educated class. In order to obtain his Master´s degree, Nisar was studying at Karachi University when he was taken as a producer of Pushto programmes in Radio Pakistan, Peshawar. In early 1960s, he used to produce drama and the agriculture-based programme for rural cultivators. During his radio service, Nisar had cooperative and professional colleagues like Sajjad Haider, Arbab Rashid Ahmad Khan and Umar Nasir. Apart from these, men like Basit Saleem, Rasheed Ali Dehqan, Arbab Wadood and Meesaq Hussain too were there. They all had a good time serving various fields of radio. When Pakistan People´s Party came into power and its leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto became the head of state, liberal employees of radio and television found the environment less suffocating and more progressive. As it often happens, the intellectual class looks at progressive parties from various angles. For example, forward-looking poets like Syed Abdul Hameed Adam, Ahmad Faraz, Fakhar Zaman, Habib Jalib, Ustad Daman, Abbas Ather and even Aslam Gurdaspuri had different opinions about the PPP and its internal and external policies. The progressive nationalists who were ideologically closer to Awami National Party were either at variance with PPP intellectuals or clashed violently with them. It was in this context that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto appointed Maulana Kausar Niazi first as the federal minister for religious affairs and later as federal minister for information. Maulana Kausar Niazi was a well-read scholar and a fiery orator. However, he had never posed to be the type of left-wing political intellectual who had ever studied Karl Marx or who could deliver an extended lecture on the writing techniques of Russian novelist Maxim Gorky. In a meeting, Maulana Kausar Niazi reportedly made some remarks which offended the nationalist intellectuals who were ideologically closer to ANP. The result was that despite their excellent record of a 15-year-long government service three producers of Radio Pakistan Peshawar - Nisar Mazloom, Ashraf Maftoon and Afsar Shah Kakakhel - resigned their otherwise attractive jobs. Nisar left Pakistan and went into self-exile in Afghanistan. However, he soon discovered that due to the mutual leg-pulling and groupings among the progressive intellectuals already living in Afghanistan, it was difficult to live there without aligning oneself with this or that particular group. As a result, he left Afghanistan as well and went to Germany. When the PPP rule ended, he came back to Pakistan and set up a private school in Charsadda. Apart from teaching, he occasionally wrote newspaper articles which were a pleasant mix of politics, culture and even literature. Some time before his death, a collection of his newspaper columns was published under the title of ´Isteghasa´. While writing for newspapers, he never tolerated hypocrisy, double-dealing and an obscurantist approach. He did not hesitate in chiding or snubbing his fellow columnists working for one and the same paper. As the coincidence would have it, hypocrisy and double-dealing was detested both his son Zarak Khan and daughter Mahwash Habib (for personal and family reasons, she used a different surname). After doing her Master in English, Mahwash started teaching first at Peshawar Public School (PPS) and later at Peshawar University´s Jinnah College for Women. Due to her typically idealistic grooming, Mahwas was some sort of a misfit in contemporary society. Instead of discussing gold rings and necklaces with her fellow lady teachers in the staff room, she spent her tea break in PPS out in the sun while reading - often a banned book by some rebellious author. Nisar´s son Zarak was an extremely shy student at school but he gradually opened up when he joined college and was perfectly alright when he was at university. He could conveniently discuss new concepts, obtuse ideas and changing ideologies. On human level, the bespectacled brother and sister duo was amazing, wonderful and even inspiring. Nisar´s admirers hope and pray that his children will take upon themselves the task of bringing out in book form the unpublished writings of their illustrious father. Having lived an honest, sensitive, conscientious and thoughtful life, it was not surprising if at some stage Nisar developed breathing disorder known medically as asthma which ultimately also became the cause of his death. However, people like Nisar, do not in fact die. His death can be seen and understood in the light of the lines from Urdu poetry given below: Hum rooh-i-safar hain humain naamon se na pehchan; kal aur kisi naam se aa jain ge hum log! PDC Condoles the death of Nisar Mazloom Chairman Pakhtun Democratic Council Zar Ali Khan Musazai and General Secretary Ameer Khan have expressed deep sorrow and grief over the sad demise of the well-known Pashtun nationalist Politician, intellectual and writer Nisar Mazloom who died day before yesterday in Peshawar. They in a joint condolence message said that Nisar Mazloom was a real son of this Pashtun soil who had devoted himself to serve his nation with sincerity and commitment and wished to see Pashtun/Afghan national unity in his life which he considered as the only solution to the lingering problems of this nation but sorry to say his wish of pashtun national unity did not materialize during his life time but it is hoped that one day the dream which he saw will come true and all issues of the pashtun/Afghan will be solved. Zar ali musazai said that legendry like Nisar Mazloom are born once in centuries and his death created a vacuum which could not be filled in near future. He prayed to Almighty Allah to rest the departed soul with peace and give courage to his son, friends and family to bear this loss with fortitude and steadfastness. Ameen! Issued by Pakhtun Democratic Council Peshawar, Pakhtunkhwa [email protected] 0301-5963337 Pakhtun Democratic Council - د پښتونخوا خبریال
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