Rich tributes were heaped on the outgoing director of the Pakistan Study Centre (PSC), Karachi University, Dr Syed Jaffer Ahmed, at an evening organised at the Karachi Press Club to celebrate his highly successful and eventful tenure as the head of the centre.
The function was arranged by the press club in conjunction with friends of the respected academic.
All the galaxy of speakers praised him for his courage of conviction with which he carried out his duties and, despite the most stifling and oppressive of conditions, always obeyed the voice of his conscience and never compromised on his convictions under duress or for material gains.
There were speakers from all walks of life with a record of leftwing activities who spoke of Dr Ahmed in the most positive of terms.
All the speakers pointed out that it was highly creditable that Dr Ahmed, in spite of having been in a government organisation, completed his tenure without getting into any kind of trouble or controversy and emerged with an absolutely clean slate.
Almost all the speakers spoke in particular of his courage of conviction whereby, despite the highly oppressive and stifling eighties, he always spoke the truth even if the ruling clique found it unsavoury.
Those from the labour movement talked of him most fondly for his unfailing commitment to the cause of the workers.
Nasir Mansoor, deputy-general secretary of the National Trade Unions Federation, “welcomed him back in the fold”, implying thereby that he would again actively contribute to labour programmes and revival of the progressive movement for labour. Abid Abbasi, a former student of Dr Ahmed, praised him for the way he taught which turned out to be “so fruitful in practical life”.
Journalist Wusatullah Khan said that Dr Ahmed encouraged research-based teaching and amply demonstrated that even in a government organisation you could speak the truth and do the right thing if you were true to your convictions.
Noted journalist and TV personality Mazhar Abbas, in his tribute to Dr Jaffer Ahmed, said: “Dr Jaffer set up the Pakistan Study Centre at a juncture when study in Pakistan had become so difficult.”
Taking a swipe at the mushrooming television channels that, according to him, were using unbecoming language and promoting sycophancy, he said that it was voices like Dr Ahmed’s that were a whiff of fresh air.
Comrade Imdad Kazi, a communist leader, lauded the noted teacher for disclosing the truth about the Rawalpindi Conspiracy case of 1951 whereby the top leadership of the party had refused to be party to any conspiracy.
Karamat Ali, director of Piler praised Dr Ahmed for having the moral courage to think differently from the establishment on matters like weaponry. He called the respected professor a public intellectual. Noted leftist intellectual Zahida Hina said that Dr Ahmed worked actively for the enlightenment of society. “It’s good he won’t be in the university anymore,” she said.
Historian Dr Mubarak Ali addressed the gathering by telephone from Lahore and lauded Dr Ahmed’s penchant for the truth and courage of conviction.
Winding up, Dr Ahmed thanked the speakers for their profuse tributes and said that if one had the will to come out with the truth and reality, an establishment, no matter how coercive, would be no bar. He said that during his tenure at the PSC, they had published 65 books which were totally divergent from the establishment’s views, but they proved to be so popular, so much so that three of them were pirated in India.