Pakistan asked to learn from the past

LAHORE

Eminent historian and author Ayesha Jalal has said that Pakistan should learn from its experience vis-à-vis reliance on the United States after the cold war period and now instead of depending on China, the country should seek partnership.

She said this during a question-answer session after a discussion “Pakistan at 70” at Lahore Literary Festival 2017 here on Saturday. Noted historian William Dalrymple was the moderator. The session’s venue was literally jam-packed with academicians, historians, literary figures and people from different walks of life.  

Answering yet another question Ayesha Jalal said history textbooks in Pakistan were ideologically oriented and not historically grounded. She was critical of rote learning tendency among Pakistani students and urged to promote analytical thinking among the youth. To another question she said public schools were a bigger problem than madressas (religious seminaries).   

Earlier she started the discussion with the 1947 Partition and also linked the East Pakistan tragedy with the power sharing strategy. “Pakistan has survived despite all predictions and unbelievable violence and the remarkable thing about Pakistan is it is going to stay despite all problems,” she said while commending resilience of people coming out for festivals like the Lahore Literary Festival.   

Rejecting the notion that democracy had failed in Pakistan or could not work, Ayesha Jalal said democracy was not a magic wand but a conflict and the countries which mediated the conflict were thriving. “We don’t have institutions to mediate this conflict,” she said and added we needed to get institutional building. She also talked about civil-military imbalance and imbalance within the civil administration and stressed the strengthening of institutions.     

To a question on Jihad, Ayesha Jalal said there had not been agreement among Muslims what actually constituted a Jihad. She further said Jihad was far from war on others and a struggle to overcome negative impulses within ourselves. 

In another session renowned playwright Asghar Nadeem Syed was in conversation with veteran actress Shabnam Ghosh where she shared her memories of her association with the Pakistani film industry. 

Shabnam, wife of acclaimed musician Robin Ghosh, said it was Waheed Murad who invited her to Pakistan for film Samundar which was directed by Rafiq Rizvi. She said she had film offers even before that but she lacked confidence and did not speak Urdu. “Once I felt confident and learnt Urdu, I decided to come to Pakistan,” she added.

Recalling her role of a crazy young girl in film “Akhri Station” Shabnam said there was lot of criticism from the then East Pakistan because of “minor” and “unimportant” nature of the role but she remained committed as she loved the character. 

The veteran actress went on to say that she met fame when she was a student which unfortunately later proved an impediment. She  said in 1970’s producers were all for good movies only and not for monetary benefits which resulted in quality entertainment. She said the tendency of producing films in a short period of time resulted in the downfall of Pakistani films.

Shabnam Ghosh  said veteran actors Muhammad Ali, Nadeem and Shahid had their individual style and she liked working with them all. “But I really enjoyed working with Ali bhai (Muhammad Ali)”, she added.

She said she did not realise that people of Pakistan loved her so much and added she always loved to be in Pakistan. “Thanks to LLF, now the new generation also knows me”, she said. She also talked about visiting Swat and other valleys during film shoots and cherished the memories as to how they all used to work as one strong unit from producers to directors, musicians, script writers and actors.