PESHAWAR: Speakers at a literary reference paid rich tributes to nationalist Pashto poet Akmal Lewanai and termed him a strong voice of poor.

They demanded through a unanimously adopted resolution that his entire literary works should be compiled and printed. Through another resolution they sought purchase of rare Pashto books collected by the late poet so that his family could be compensated duly.

The event in memory of Akmal Lewanai, a versatile Pashto poet, was organised by the cultural wing of Awami National Party (ANP) at Bacha Khan Markaz. Literati, intellectuals, party workers and fans of the late poet turned up in a large number.

ANP provincial president Mian Iftikhar Hussain, who chaired the event, said that Akmal Lewanai was poor in material wealth but rich in creative thoughts and used to dub himself as ‘Lewanai’ ( mad) but in fact he was the personification of sanity and intellect as his writings reflected his thoughts and vision.

ANP holds reference for late Akmal Lewanai at Bacha Khan Markaz

He said that being a staunch devotee of Bacha Khan, the late poet always advocated non-violence, humanism and satirised follies and foibles of his people in his writings as he wanted a just, peace-loving and pluralistic Pashtun society.

“We need to honour all literary figures and artists in their lifetime. Akmal Lewanai played his role in a humble and silent manner and never asked for anything in return. He was a down to earth Pashtun nationalist bard. He would be always remembered in high esteem,” said Mr Hussain.

Noted Pashto poet Rahmat Shah Sail said that Akmal Lewanai was the only Pashto poet, who throughout his life dealt in books and used to set up a stall selling Pashto books on variety of topics whenever organisers of a literary event would invite him. “He was popular for mimicry of all senior poets and his main objective was to keep alive those literary giants,” he added.

Prof Abaseen Yousafzai on the occasion said that Akmal Lewanai was strong voice of poor and used satire and humour as an incredible poetic weapon to educate his people in line with vision of Bacha Khan. AKamal and Ajmal were two inevitable poets, who knew very well the nerves of people and were aware of how could those evils prevailing in the society be rooted out, he added.

A few poets presented poetic tribute to late Akmal Lewanai, praising him as a genius in critiquing society.

Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2024