Meray Jitnay Bhi Wazeer Hain Sab Beyzameer hain

Mai tou Unka Bhi Imam Hoon, Mai Quiad-e-Awam hoon

Habib Jalib is not an unknown name here on this wordpress. He has been discussed previously here and I must admit that it is quite a good collection Ammar has come up with.This couplet always strikes me right in my head every time I read this. Habib Jalib was actually exiled after this by Z.A.Bhutoo, then prime minister of Pakistan who used to call himself Quaid-e-Awam(leader of the people). It’s a famous quote that “history repeats itself”. I don’t quite believe in that unless u made an honest attempt to learn from your past or history, you are never out of it and with change of characters you are actually performing the same phase of history.

Surprisingly we live in a culture where we are dominated by slogans for which we don’t even know the meanings of or we never try to find their meanings. From “Roti Kapra Makaaan” to “Karz Utharo Mulk Sanwaro” to “Enlightened Moderation” to “National Interest”. There are so many examples in front of us. Those who bring them out (the leaders) and those who follow it (Political Workers) hats off to them for their creativity.

It is not new that when an artist, poet or writer criticizes the government, he is labeled as an opposition worker or a rebel. The great Faiz Ahmed Faiz had to fight his struggle from behind the bars. Habib Jalib met the similar fate as he was exiled and currently the media in my country was labeled as irresponsible who is not working in the national interest of the country. Who can define national interest, what does it contain, how can one act against it. These are probably the questions which we feel cannot be answered

An artist or a media man is a part of society, he is sensitive to a lot of issues and God has given him the power to express his thoughts to a number of people who follows him. He will write or say whatever is the general thought that prevails among the people. All right I agree to the point that there has to be some accountability of one’s act, especially for the ones who can ignite a certain section of society but the evaluators cannot be the ones who are actually the part of the same story. Its funny that the national interest is not at sake when the parliament holds an empty session by passing important issues, its not even damaged when you build emperor’s like castles, it never gets weakened when we get attracted to the power like honey bees but still a word of media man can affect national interest like anything or perhaps its appropriate to quote Hazrat Ali (A.S) “The power of pen is twice more than that of sword.” Let the media free, let the people think and decide the term national interest themselves. We are the Awam (people), when we can elect you, we can decide what we want to see and hear and probably we can decide what really National Interest for all of us.

Popularity: 9% [?]