HYDERABAD: Speakers at the 10th three-day Ayaz Melo that got off to a colourful start at Khanabadosh writers cafe on Friday emphasised the need for promoting tolerance and resisting extremism by rejecting obsolete modes of thinking.

The first day began with a late evening inaugural session with keynote speech by left wing intellectual Dr Nazir Mehmood. Sindh Minister for Culture Syed Zufliqar Shah inaugurated the festival which began with a waee of Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai presented by Ghulam Sakina, Pakeeza, Khushi Mallah and Suhana Mallah.

Arfana Mallah, stage secretary, threw light on Ayaz’s work and festival’s history, while Amar Sindhu, the festival organiser, said the gathering had become identity of Sindh. Ayaz fought for identity of Sindh in his era, she said.

Dr Nazir Mehmood discussed rise of extremism in Sindh with particular reference to Dr Shahnawaz Kunbhar’s murder. Context of extremism must be clearly understood because it was never promoted by masses but by rulers on purpose, he said.

He said that people should not lose sight of multiple forms of extremism. Cultural, political and gender extremism were equally dangerous, he said.

He called for promoting tolerance in society and said not only mullah-military alliance was an issue but political parties offering excuses for failing to banish extremism was itself a problem which he said was not an acceptable justification.

Lashing out at rulers for targeting progressive writers, poets and activists while simultaneously promoting extremism, he rejected the narrative that state was targeting extremists. “Taking a sip in a hotel in Afghanistan you say you are fighting extremism… it is a blatant lie. This drama should end,” he concluded.

Celebrated writer, Noorul Huda Shah, regretted people were busy in inanities and intellectual discourse focused on secondary issues at a time when Sindh faced grave threat to its survival.

She said that Sindh’s ruling party had disappointed everyone. “You have been reduced to [faceless] voters good only for stamping ballots. We will have to rise,” she said.

“People are being pushed towards tribalism and pir parasti and if we start heading towards fall then everything will be lost,” she contended.

Javed Soomro moderated a session on ‘A dialogue with history’, a book containing selected interviews with eminent politicians and world leaders conducted by noted journalist Zahid Hussain.

Soomro asked the author to explain his interview with Rajiv Gandhi, especially his observation that ‘there was hope in the air’.

Zahid replied Rajiv was not a politician but it was an accident of history that he became prime minister after his mother’s assassination. The interview was held in December 1988 on the eve of Saarc summit in Islamabad which Rajiv attended while Benazir Bhutto had been elected as the first woman prime minister of Muslims world after a decade of dictatorship, which was a great success of a movement, he said.

Published in Dawn, December 21st, 2024