People’s poet Habib Jalib paid tribute

LAHORE: People from different walks of life, including intellectuals, poets, scholars, critics and journalists, turned out in inordinate numbers for the people’s poet Habib Jalib’s two days Awami Mela at Alhamra Arts Council here on Wednesday.

Habib Jalib Memorial Foundation in collaboration with Lahore Arts Council organised the festival in which different sessions were held. The event started with the ribbon cutting ceremony by the renowned scholar, poet, writer, and journalist Dr Kanwal Feroz along with Executive Director Lahore Arts Council Ather Ali Khan, DG PILAC Dr Sughra Sadaf, Tahir Sarwar Mir, Dr Iftikhar Bukhari, Poet Nasir Bashir and Habib Jalib’s son Nasir Habib and others.

Habib experienced hardships, absorbed them, transformed them in verses and spoke for the welfare of the masses. His courage was matchless. The very first name that comes to the mind during the rough patch of oppression is Habib Jalib. His words resonated so well the suffering of the poor that he became their voice and will remain the representative of the common men forever. Whenever there will be oppression, we will feel Jalib, whenever, there will be dictatorship, we will find Jalib among us and this connectivity makes Jalib an extraordinary individual and a poet of the masses.

During the ceremony, Dr Kanwal Feroz said Jalib throughout his life translated the pains, sorrows, and hopes of the common man in his poetry. Millions of people adore and love Jalib and become very emotional while listening to Jalib’s verses; their admiration and madness for his poetry are not irrational as Jalib dedicated his whole life for people.

Habib Jalib’s son Nasir Jalib while expressing his views about his father said that whenever the actual history of Pakistan will be written, the people will know that when others scared to breathe in the air of fear and dread, Jalib’s poetry spread the blood of life within the sinking pulse of the Pakistani nation.

Speaking on the occasion, Executive Director Lahore Arts Council Ather Ali Khan said Jalib was basically an optimistic and positive minded poet. He was a poet of the masses who wrote and highlighted problems of the common man. He said that Habib Jalib was the revolutionary man who faced custody throughout his life.

Other speakers also spoke about Jalib’s life and his work for people, most of the speakers in their views stressed that Jalib was an optimistic soul who courageously faced dictatorship and stood with the masses in difficult times.

industry: Provincial Minister for Industries Commerce and Trade Mian Aslam Iqbal said industrial setups in Shahdra, Daroghawala and Ferozepur will be regularised and the burden of regularisation will not be put on the industrialists.

He said this while addressing a delegation of Pakistan Plastic and PVC Pipe Manufacturing Industries. He said steps were being taken rapidly for the provision of facilities to the industrialists. The delegation apprised the minister of problems being faced by them.

The minister said poverty and unemployment will only disappear with the acceleration of industrial process. Punjab government has taken practical steps for the promotion of industry and making ease of doing business. He said cottage industry and SMEs would be promoted by providing loans and industry department had been fully activated.

He said the genuine problems of the industrialists would be solved on priority basis and they would not be left on the mercy of those who create hindrances in industrial process.