Zubair Qureshi
In Pakistani writers’ English writings we see very few works of resistance and Senator Raza Rabbani’s novella ‘The Smile Snatchers’ is a good addition in resistance literature.
These views were expressed by the former Chairman Senate, Senator Raza Rabbani’s colleagues in the Upper House and members of the political parties including Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Awami National Party (ANP) at the launching ceremony of the novelette at a local hotel on Friday.
Besides the parliamentarians, eminent writers and poets also attended the book launch welcoming the politician-turned-fiction writer among them.
Noted writer and critic Prof Fateh Muhammad Malik presided over the ceremony while among the noted guests who spoke on the occasion included Amjad Islam Amjad, Nasir Abbas Nayyir, Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, Sen Farhatullah Babar, Senator Afrasiab Khattak and Secretary General of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Harris Khali-
que.
The proceedings of the book launch were smoothly conducted by Javeria Tamim, a scholar of English literature and a linguist.
One could see a large number of senators, MNAs who had come in large number to greet Rabbani on bringing out his second work of literature. Earlier, his collection of short stories ‘The Invisible People’ (2017) won critics’ appreciation and even received Pakistan Academy of Literature (PAL) prize of best work in English fiction.
Senator Raza Rabbani, as we have heard him say on a number of occasions, identifies himself with the working class of Pakistan. Though he was born and brought up with haves yet his heart beats and he always speaks for the rights of the have-nots, for those less fortunate sons and daughters who have been exploited, deprived, victimized by the powerful elite of society for centuries.
In his remarks Rabbani said through ‘The Smile Snatchers’ he had tried to draw the attention of the world’s so-called champions of peace to the miseries of children in war-torn countries.
I have been caught up since my early days in a triangle within me, my career as a politician and myself as a mystic and writer, however, politics turned out to be his lifelong romance and he was greatly influenced by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s charismatic personality.
Prof Fateh Muhammad Malik said the book had a message of peace and served a wakeup call that the world ought to be a secure place for children and the societies that can’t protect their kids ultimately get destroyed.
Senator Mushahid Hussain saw the book as an effort to explain that art and politics was not separate as it defined the political lines and reality of the society.