Dr Malik to implement Faiz’s cultural policy in Balochistan

LONDON: Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch has called for the solidarity of working class people across Pakistan to create a tolerant and cultural society as envisaged by the evolutionary poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz.
Dr Malik was speaking as the guest of honour at the annual Faiz Mela, organised by Faiz Cultural Foundation (UK) and supported by GEO TV Network and Jang Group of Newspapers. Salima Hashmi, singer Jawad Ahmad, Zia Mohyuddin, Haris Khalique, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, and Senator Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo were amongst some of the speakers.
Dr Malik announced that he would implement Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s cultural policy in Balochistan and would work towards promoting arts and culture in the province. He said that the promotion of culture, arts and literature had never been on the agenda of Pakistan’s rulers and “as a result secular and liberal people have been pushed towards extremism and intolerance”.
Dr Malik said that Faiz had left deep impression on the minds of Baloch people as the legendary poet spoke against the sufferings of Baloch people and inspired several generations of activists who would always make a difference to their communities, inspired by Faiz and his call for equality and rights for the poor masses. He said that the people of Balochistan could never forget the great poet.
He announced to introduce “Faiz Ahmed Faiz Chair” in a Balochistan university as a first step towards “implementing Faiz’s cultural policy in the province because our culture is dying fast”.
Dr Malik told a packed auditorium of more than 1,500 that Balochistan has always been a liberal society where “religion has been treated as a personal matter of an individual but then militancy penetrated in our society as a policy tool”.
He called for the unity of working class people in Pakistan. “We have to unite masses. Secular and liberal forces in Pakistan have a task at their hands to bring together masses and inform them of the liberal alternative programme.”
Senator Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo reminded the audience that Faiz Ahmed Faiz was called a “traitor” by the rulers of Pakistan for speaking up his mind and for refusing to bow down before the dictators. He said that the role of religious clerics used to be confined to mosques but now “we have given them guns to go out and wreak havoc in the society”.
He said that Pakistan should not blame any foreign country or force for pushing it into the state that it finds itself today. “We are where we are because of our own policies and follies committed by our policy makers. Our own state has done it. We brought the ‘war on terror’ on ourselves; it was not imposed on us. But now it is our own war and we must fight it in order to

survive.” He called on Pakistan’s establishment to stop differentiating between the good and the bad Taliban and take the war to anyone who has taken up arms against the state.
Other speakers paid rich tributes to Faiz Ahmed Faiz and said that his message resonates more strongly in this age and day than before and it was important for the progressive forces to propagate the message of Faiz. The 8-hour long cultural show was divided into three parts and compered by Dr Rehman Khan, Akram Qaimkhani and Asim Ali Shah.