KARACHI, Nov 2: The Kamal-i-Fun Award 2010 was given to renowned archivist and oral historian Lutfullah Khan at a ceremony organised by the Academy of Letters Pakistan at the Arts Council Karachi on Tuesday.

Poetess Zehra Nigah presided over the event.

The programme began with recitation from the Holy Quran, after which Haider Bakhsh presented Kalam-i-Shah Latif. Haider Bakhsh did a tremendous job as his presentation was appreciated by a discerning crowd.

Resident director of the Academy of Letters Agha Noor Mohammad Pathan was the first speaker of the evening. He said Lutfullah Khan had been recording voices of men of letters and artistes for the last 62 years, which was a result of his love for literature and art. He said the academy had honoured such glitterati as Mushtaq Ahmad Yousufi, N.A. Baloch, Sobhu Gianchandani, Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi, Ada Jaffery and Ajmal Khatak, and in 2010 it was Lutfullah Khan's turn. He said since 1948 Lutfullah Khan had been at it and no institution, leave alone an individual, in the subcontinent had a collection like his. From Abul Kalam Azad to Ahmed Faraz, he had taped voices of every important individual. He praised the vision of Fakhar Zaman, head of the academy, for choosing a person like Mr Khan for the country's highest literary award.

Poetess Dr Fatima Hasan, who conducted the event, then read out a paper on Lutfullah Khan. She said Mr Khan had a collection of more than 5,000 voices which were all well catalogued and could be culled in an instant. She said though he had also travelled extensively, his recognition lay in being an archivist. Talking about his books, she said in Tamasha-i-Alh-i-Qalam Mr Khan had sketched a lot of known personalities with accurate description. His style in writing the book was like that of a documentary filmmaker and the narrative was easy to follow.

Discussing his second book Sur Ki Talash , Dr Hasan said Mr Khan had learnt classical music from a very early age and was an ardent admirer of the art form. He presented a music programme from Radio Madras in 1935 and in the course of his life met many classical musicians whom he had discussed in his book in an interesting manner. His other book, Hijraton Ke Silsilay , was an autobiography, she said, which had more to do with socio-political happenings. The book for a long time had remained a best-seller, she claimed. She said Mr Khan had also experimented with the art of photography.

Poet Sarshar Siddiqui was brief in his speech. He said some awards shower prestige and honour on the recipient, but Lutfullah Khan had increased the value of the Kamal-i-Fun Award by winning it. He said the time we lived in would be known as Lutfullah Khan's era. He said Mr Khan was a writer, poet, founder of an ideology, therefore it was important that when he's no more someone should carry on with his work. He said Mr Khan had many admirers because he had recorded the voices of even those whom no one liked to lend an ear to.

After Sarshar Siddiqui's speech distinguished humourist Musthaq Ahmed Yousufi gave away the award to Lutfullah Khan.

Zehra Nigah, in her succinct but well-crafted speech, said she felt privileged to be taking part in the event. She said some people believed that voices didn't die; Mr Khan proved it. She said he had the ability to summon any significant voice. Quoting someone she said when the country was burning men of letters should play a tune that mustn't fan the flames. She pointed out that in these trying times, Khan Sahib's work made us feel good. She also praised his wife, Zahida, for helping him out in his endeavours and for being there for him every step of the way. Lutfullah Khan read out from a paper and started off in a lighter vein by suggesting that we lived in an age when blowing one's own trumpet had become an art, so he must be allowed to do the same. Recollecting his journey, he said he landed in Karachi on Oct 17, 1947 from India and chose advertising as profession. He said he ran an ad agency for 52 years and had led a contented life. He had no enemies, he claimed. Mr Khan then read out a few lines from Faiz Ahmed Faiz's poem woh loag buhut khush qismat thay .

He said he'd been writing and getting published since 1933, experimenting with photography since 1946 and learning classical music from the day he was born; and to date all three passions were alive. For the last six decades he'd been recording voices, he said.

Mr Khan lamented that though oral history was looked upon with favour in the West, in Pakistan not many acknowledged it. He thanked the academy for bestowing the honour on him and said the academy was founded in 1976 by Z.A. Bhutto and had had chairmen like A. K. Brohi and Hafeez Jalandhari. He said Hafeez Jalandhari was 16 years senior to him but treated him like a friend. He criticised Ahmed Faraz and Iftikhar Arif for not giving him due recognition or asking him how his audio library was faring when they were heading the institution.

He praised the academy for doing good work and said when he used to hear about events happening in Islamabad he'd often wished he was there and taped some of the senior voices. In 1974, he told the audience, he thought of recording the voices of those elders who hadn't been to Karachi, which took him to Multan, Peshawar and some smaller cities. While in Lahore he met Fakhar Zaman who loved his mother tongue as well as Urdu. There he recorded Mr Zaman's poetry in his own voice too. He said Mr Zaman was heading the institution for two and a half years and had done a good job of it. He said Mr Zaman was interested in tasawwuf (spiritualism); his wife had even penned a book on the subject. He then narrated the tale of how the couple came to visit him at his place.

Lutfullah Khan rued that some people took him for granted and didn't understand the spirit of his audio library.

In the end, Arts Council secretary Ahmed Shah thanked the audience.