Progressive writers’ body pays tribute to Zahida Hina

The Anjuman Taraqqi Pasand Musannifeen Karachi in collaboration with the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) on Thursday organised a literary event at the PMA House in honour of Urdu short story writer and columnist Zahida Hina for her lifelong services to literature.

She was also awarded a lifetime achievement award on the occasion. In the first half of the event, two books — Kutab-e-Dil and Pedh Se Bichdi Shakh — authored by Najma Usman were launched. Introducing the books, Nasim Anjum said the first book was basically a travelogue of Hajj and the other was a collection of short stories.

Speaking on the occasion, the author said that when she performed Hajj in 2017, she was inspired to write a book but she was unable to complete the book due to various reasons. She added that then she performed Hajj again and made bullet points to record her observations in the holy places.

About her second book, she said it contained short stories that were written after taking inspiration from real stories happening in our society.

In the second half of the event, poet Attiya Dawood introduced Zahida’s literary work and presented an analysis of her columns. She said Zahida had extensively covered social issues in her columns.

“Zahida present actual facts in fiction and she doesn’t fabricate historic realities,” Attiya said. Later in her speech, Zahida said that she was not born in Sindh but since she came there, she got completely attached to the land. “I love Sindh,” she said, adding that she could not live anywhere else due to her love for the land.

She remarked that whatever worthy things she possessed were given to her by Karachi and Sindh. She said it is not necessary for a writer to ascertain who will be the readers before writing something. The author added that if writers are not deeply connected with their land, they cannot contribute to the evolution of their society.

She said writers had brought about revolutions in the past. She cited the example of Reformation in Europe that happened as a result of writings. Paying tribute to Zahida from Lahore, renowned travelogue and fiction writer Mustansar Hussain Tarar said Zahida was one of the persons of Karachi he deeply respected. He said he was not a literary critic who could analyse her prose in depth, but he was fond of her writing.

Raza Ali Abidi from London stated that he came to appreciate intelligence of Zahida when he got the chance of working with her for the BBC. Dr Anwar Ahmed from Multan praised the services of Zahida for the Anjuman Taraqqi-e-Urdu. He said the newspaper articles and short stories penned by her had deservedly attracted literary scholars who wrote dissertations on them.

Many other literary figures, including Muslim Shameem, Dr Sher Shah Syed and Mazhar Jamil, also praised the literary career of Zahida.