LAHORE, Feb 11: Six books were launched on Friday at a ceremony at Alhamra Art Centre in connection with centenary celebration of Faiz’s birth.

Indian film actress Shabana Azmi and her husband, Javed Akhtar, also attended the event organised by Faiz Foundation.

The books launched are: Two Loves -- Letters from Jail, Payam-i-Mashriq by Iqbal, translation by Faiz (reprint), Faiz Banam Iftikhar Arif by Iftikhar Arif, Jinhain Jurm-i-Ishq Pe Naz Tha by Salahuddin Haider, Sheeshon Ka Maseeha by Ashfaq Husain and Mauzoo-i-Sukhan by Humair Hashmi.

On the occasion, Javed Akhtar said whenever he reads Faiz’s poetry, it reminds him of moonlight as whatever sits in the moonlight -- a pond, a jungle, a stone or anything else -- becomes beautiful. He said had Faiz written poems on the brutalities which followed partition in the subcontinent, these verses would have stood for all such brutalities taking place in the world. He said great people like Faiz would never be forgotten in history and time and Faiz would remain popular and fresh even after 150 years because of the universality of his poetry.

Poet Iftikhar Arif said he had published 38 letters written to him by Faiz in his book titled ‘Faiz Banam Iftikhar Arif’. He said Faiz had written 42 letters altogether to him and he chose to leave out four letters because of their very personal contents.

Mr Arif said Faiz was one of the founders of Progressive Writers Association as in 1936 he had participated in the drafting of organisation’s manifesto.

Canada-based writer Ashfaq Hussain said he had launched a book on Faiz ‘Shishoon ka masiha’ in which he had compiled five books he had published on Faiz.

Writer Ubaid Siddiqui said a lot had been written on Faiz, Dr Muhammad Iqbal and Manto and the works of these two poets and a short-story writer had been translated into several languages.

Faiz Foundation Chairperson Saleema Hashmi said that she had found the collection of letters written by Faiz to his wife Ayls Faiz at home. She said she conserved those letters and later published those in ‘Two Loves -- Letters from Jail’. governor: Governor Sardar Latif Khosa said on Friday Faiz Ahmed Faiz always upheld the cause of the oppressed and the downtrodden through his poetry.

Mr Khosa was chief guest at a seminar at the Punjab Institute of Language, Art and Culture organised by the Pakistan Academy of Letters in connection with Faiz’s centenary celebrations. He said Faiz’s poetry had a greater outreach and millions of people around the world loved him for his love for humanity.

Khosa said Faiz was the most popular poet of this part of the world after Ghalib and Allama Iqbal. His poetry had such a strong message of love and peace that it had been translated into many languages of the world. He stressed the need to promote the thought of Faiz to eliminate intolerance and exploitation from the society.

The governor said Faiz’s popularity graph had been ever increasing. He was a strong voice against oppression and there was a similarity between Faiz’s thoughts and Pakistan People’s Party’s manifesto. He said the PPP always respected Faiz and was officially celebrating his centenary.

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Secretary General I.A. Rehman said through Faiz the Urdu poetry raised voice against oppression and made a relation with the people of the third world. He recalled that Faiz always said an enlightened and progressive society could not prevail until elimination of imperialism.

Prof Dr Mohammed Arif, Dr Sughra Sadaf, Prof Fateh Malik, Prof Syed Shabbir Shah and PAL resident director Altaf Ahmed Qureshi presented their papers on Faiz’s life, personality and poetry.