ISLAMABAD, Jan. 2: In this season of remembrance and dedication to the memory of martyred leader Benazir Bhutto, the literature loving people of the capital availed another opportunity on Friday evening of paying their respect to one more leader, Dr Jose Rizal, the national leader as well as national poet of the Philippines.

In his speech, during the memorial reference arranged by Pakistan Asean Association, in memory of Dr Jose Rizal, the Philippines Ambassador Jaime J. Yambao highlighted the fearless exposure of injustices committed by civil officials and the clergy in his country during the 19th century.

Dr Rizal had a colourful and versatile personality, and his prowess as agriculturist, novelist, physician, poet, musician and political activist, had been unmatched in the history of colonial experiences shared by a number of Asian nations, the ambassador added.

Dr Rizal struggled to establish more schools for women because he argued that women open the minds of men, Jaime Yambao said.

Rizal also wrote against the reign of terror in the society, then suffering from Friars (religious monks) and their coercive measures, particularly against women and education.

Ultimately, he was executed by the Spanish colonial leaders on the charge of spreading sedition against the ‘unlawfully’ established authority on December 30, 1896.

In fact, the memorial meeting established an international tradition of sorts, with Ambassador Yambao, singing two of Dr Rizal’s stirring and patriotic poems, in the native Tagalong language, ‘Alin Mag Lahri’ (a tribute to the pluralism of his people) as well as ‘Mi Ultimo Adios’ (My last farewell), in rich timbre voice of a soprano.

Pakistan Academy of Letters Chairman Fakhar Zaman, who co-hosted the memorial reference, paid tributes to the Phillipines’ national leader. He said Dr Rizal wrote a metaphor of uprising. And, he went on to add that writers in Pakistan too have suffered indignities. They have been suppressed, flogged and jailed at the hands of dictators. “It is the job of the writer to associate himself with movements against oppressions of the bigoted, obscurantist, as well as status quo,” he added.

At the same time, he promised to undertake Urdu translation of the works of Dr Jose Rizal within three months, if their English translation was made available.

At one time Pakistans ambassador to the Phillippines as well as former secretary-general of the Foreign Office Akram Zaki compared the two national poets of their respective countries, Dr Allama Iqbal and Dr Jose Rizal.

“Both made language and poetry central point in the task of uniting their people and gaining freedom from colonial masters,” he added.