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Thursday March 28, 2024

Outstanding people

By Dr A Q Khan
February 04, 2019

Asadullah Khan (Mirza Ghalib) was the best poet of the Subcontinent. In one ghazal, he demanded that the earth tell us what it had done to all those indomitable personalities entrusted to it over the centuries: ‘Maq door ho tau khak se puchun keh ey laeem/ tu ne who ganj hae granmaya kia kiye’.

Two great personalities have left us – one very recently and the other a few years ago. Both were dear friends. We recently lost Tariq Zafar, son of celebrated lawyer and former law minister S M Zafar. Tariq was in the prime of his life when he was snatched from us quite unexpectedly. He was young and handsome, a dynamic personality and full of passion to help those in need.

With a heart filled with benevolence and warmth, he took on the challenge of helping those in need and addressing the problems of a failing healthcare framework. He had earlier realised that those who are addicted to drugs struggle with dire poverty, homelessness and unemployment. For many of them, one meal a day is a luxury. He learnt that these people are stigmatised and marginalised, and are forced to live on the streets. He dedicated his life to rehabilitating such people.

After almost 30 years of hard work, he set up ‘Nai Zindagi’ in 1989 with the prime purpose of rehabilitating thousands of men, women and children struggling to survive. He immediately realised that these people were ostracised from local communities and could never gain employment, even if they no longer used drugs. As a result, most of them relapsed and resorted to crime in order to survive. Therefore, he tried to ensure that they were gainfully employed.

Tariq initially had to determine what a particular person was good at. If he was good at cooking, Tariq would set up a restaurant for him. If he was good at leather work, Tariq would set up a workshop for him and ensured that he got contracts for his goods. If he was a carpenter, Tariq would set up a carpentry workshop for him. In this way, 30,000 people were provided gainful employment all over the country.

Over time, he realised that HIV and Hepatitis B and C were rampant in Pakistan. The failure to implement concrete legislation and the poor financial prioritisation for this cause led to non-existent official policies. Statistics showed that 50 percent of men who used drugs were married with young children and their wives were the bread-winners of the family who shouldered the major responsibility of managing their households and taking care of their children. Many of these men and their wives were also vulnerable to AIDS.

Tariq also came across thousands of young people who were using drugs, living on the streets and exposed to violence and sexual predators. His vision was to ensure that they had access to affordable and accessible supportive services. He helped those whom nobody wanted to help.

With this in mind, ‘Nai Zindagi’ expanded its services towards preventing and reversing the fast-growing HIV menace among those most vulnerable and at risk. In 2010, Nai Zindagi’ was selected to be the principal agent to prevent, reverse and halt HIV in 30 districts in Pakistan. Tariq believed in mankind and people were his biggest treasure.

The second outstanding personality who we lost some time ago was my dear friend from Bhopal, Mohsin Bhopali, a poet par excellence. Bhopal produced many talented poets – Asghar Shairi Bhopali, Manzar Bhopal, Mohsin Bhopali and Moen Ahsan Jazbi – to name but a few. Hardly a few months ago, I launched his collection of poetry titled ‘Kulliate Mohsin Bhopali’.

The function was organised by another dear Bhopali friend (we Bhopalis tend to stick together and we all know each other), Senator Abdul Haseeb Khan at the Art Council, Karachi. It was a large gathering of literary figures from Karachi and members of Mohsin Bhai’s family. Mohsin Bhai’s real name was Abdul Rehman. He was born in the suburbs of Bhopal, migrated to Pakistan, and spent some time in rural Sindh. He then obtained a diploma in civil engineering from NED University. In those days, even diploma-holders were competent engineers. He joined the Sindh Development Department and rose to the respected post of executive engineer.

I met him at a function organised at the then Sheraton Hotel in my honour after the nuclear tests. He had become a popular literary figure in Karachi by that time and a much-sought-after poet. He died on the January 17, 2007. With his demise, Pakistan lost a poet par excellence while Bhopal lost one of its outstanding personalities.

Email: dr.a.quadeer.khan@gmail.com