Zubair Qureshi
At an introductory ceremony of the book ‘Hum Nay Jo BhulaDia’ the speakers congratulated the author, historian and former Adviser to President of Pakistan, FarooqAdil on the second edition of the book and termed it a true and realistic picture of Pakistan’s erstwhile hidden history.
The ceremony held at the AllamaIqbal Open University’s (AIOU) auditorium was addressed by noted speakers, intellectuals and eminent personalities including Interim Federal Minister for Information & Broadcasting MurtazaSolangi who was the Chief Guest on the occasion, well-known writer and academician Prof Fateh Muhammad Malik, Vice Chancellor of AIOU Prof DrNasirMehmood, Director General (DG) of YunusEmre Institute (Turkish Cultural Centre), Prof DrHalilTokar, former Chairman of Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) Prof DrYousufKhushk, writer Hamid Shahid, DrKishwar Sultana, columnist KhurshidNadeem, Abdul SattarAsim, Abdul JabbarMirza, Abdul BasitMujahid and others.
MurtazaSolangi termed the book a good addition and said through the book we come across those aspects of history which had gone ‘missing’ under the false narratives of the vested interests. We need to learn from this book and make the information public for the general consumption, he said. FarooqAdil with a rich journalistic and literary background has carried out quite an extensive research to compile and complete this book and we are thankful to him for taking us down to the early days of the establishment of Pakistan and various challenges the nascent state faced. He also commended the organizers of the ceremony, AIOU and YunusEmre Institute, for holding a ‘thought-provoking’ dialogue along the sidelines of the book introduction ceremony.
Prof Fateh Muhammad Malik praised the book and the author saying FarooqAdil has given us the first alternative history of Pakistan. “I am happy that in the 75 years of Pakistan, a serious work on ‘real history’ has been carried out,” said Prof Fateh Muhammad Malik urging the students, politicians, journalists and general public to read the book for a true picture of our history. DrYousufKhushk while paying rich tributes to the author said the book provided a realistic analysis of Pakistan’s history. Though commissioned by the BBC to undertake the writing, he has exposed hidden aspects of Pakistan’s history and has thus done a great service to the nation showing how the vested interests dominated the country right from the beginning and exploited its resources for their personal use.
Through the book, we come to realize that only characters have changed but circumstances are the same. He referred to the chapter in which 1953’s ‘Wheat flour crisis’ is mentioned. In 1953, the Pakistani people were suffering due to incompetence and mismanagement of the then government. Likewise, today, we are facing the same type of crisis, said Khushk. There are many instance given in the book such as ‘Sindh-Mahajar Conflict’ of 1948, dismemberment of Pakistan 1971, former dictator ZiaulHaq’s controversial rule, President RafiqTarar’s defiance to General Musharraf when the latter refused to tender resignation and many others that give the reader a new perspective and a different account of what they have been told.
