LAHORE: World Punjabi Congress (WPC) Chairman Fakhar Zaman has said that Pakistani writers settled in foreign countries should assimilate themselves into local cultures and always beat chest about nostalgia.
He said that one should not forget the roots but one has to use the images and sensibility, which is the hallmark of a particular foreign country. Zaman was giving the presidential address at function with Dutch Pakistani writer Asad Mufty, arranged by the Punjab Institute of Language and Culture (PILAC). DG Sughra Sadaf praised Mufty’s poetry and columns. Zaman further said that our expatriate writers should learn the respective languages of foreign countries so that they can study the literature being produced there. He said that in his opinion our writers should write on foreign poets and writers and about literary movements abroad. He said that he keeps on visiting foreign lands and he has felt that negligible number of Pakistani writers has the knowledge of what is being written in the country of which they have the citizenship, especially when they are living in a country where language is not English. It is good to write about Faiz and Munir and Manto but the towering literary personalities of foreign countries also deserve that our expats write on their poetry, novel, short story and essays. Zaman said that these are the times when outdated “Gul-o-Bulbul” and “boy meets girl” sensibilities should not be the main focus of our writers. Technology, communication revolution and cyber advancement has brought in new subjects, new images, new metaphors and new similes. Fakhar said that he would appreciate if for example our expats in Sweden write on Swedish Nobel laureate Karlfeldt and living legend Peter Curman.
Zaman said that new geo-political realities in the world have opened up new vistas, panorama and horizons for a writer to make the subject of his writing. For example what is happening to the migrants from Middle East, the pathetic condition of migrants, the deplorable treatment with Rohingiya’s and brinkmanship between America and North Korea are new ground realities which cannot escape the attention of literati. He said that Racism, Islamophobia, Xenophobia are the new ugly realities and writers have to put a joint front against these evils. Fakhar said that may be this is idealism on his part but he would like to see a untied global front of writers like United Nations to struggle and resist the excesses of societies of prejudicial minds. Concluding, Fakhar Zaman said that Asad Mufty and other Pakistani writers abroad should give thought to what he has said.
Published in Daily Times, December 1st 2017.
