Three books launched

LAHORE:Sanjh Publications launched three books, a novel “Hathon Tutti Tand” by Saeed Anjum Khokhar, a collection of short stories “Jungle Rakhay Jag Dae” by Shahzad Aslam and a translation of “Communist Party Manifesto” by Mushtaq Soofi at Adabi Baithak in Alhamra, The Mall on Friday.

Saeed Anjum is a corporate lawyer and Shahzad Aslam is a judge. The chair at the launch of the novel was Shahid Shabbir, another lawyer - Anjum’s senior, while Justice (retd) M Anwarul Haq was the chair at the launch of short stories’ collection.

The moderators were Ali Usman Bajwa and Dr Shabnam Ishaq. Former councilor Azam Malik was the first to speak on this occasion. He said, “Saeed Anjum has written about dictators. He is a brave writer, who exposed the politicians.

He knows the system better than the people who remained in that system”. He said he is particularly impressed by the way Saeed has taught his wife and children to respect and love people and the way he treats his mother. Saeed Anjum has been to 35 countries and 150 cities. He said he observed that everywhere people spoke their own language. Shahzad Aslam encouraged Saeed to write a novel when he thought of writing only a story, Saeed said. He said the nursery of fake leadership gained root during Ayub Khan’s reign. “I have written about how people struggled together for democracy and turned against each other when they succeeded.

Whoever will get an opportunity to break another’s thread (tund katay ga), will do so,” he said. Of the three excerpts, he read out to the audience, the third was startling. It was about how a fellow, who was given a garland to put around the best candidate, ended up wearing it himself.

Where is the right use of authority, asked Shahid Shabbir, who spoke next. He said, “The book is about what we have understood from independence and how our state has treated us. The language is easy and the book is very readable.” The collection of short stories Jungle Rakhay Jag Dae by Shahzad Aslam has been published in Gurmukhi recently. Dr Zaheer Hasan Wattoo said the story is a discourse on many structures of power.

He talked about the essence of different stories in the collection one by one. Special mentions were of ‘Lahu da Mul’ and ‘Ki jana mein kaun’. “Counter-narrative is evident in most stories,” he said.