A condolence reference was held at Lahore Press Club on Wednesday to pay tribute to the veteran journalist, progressive writer and film maker Hameed Akhtar for his services to Urdu literature, freedom of expression, free thought and empowerment of poor who died here last month at the ripe age of 87.
The reference, organised by Young Development Trust was addressed by Akhtar's professional colleagues I. A. Rehman, Shafqat Tanveer Mirza, Hussain Naqi, playwright Asghar Nadeem Sayed and former provincial minister Chaudhry Mohammad Iqbal. Speakers said late Hameed Akhtar as Secretary-General of Progressive Writers Association (Anjuman-e-Taraqqi Pasand Musanefeen) served the committed leftist writers movement well and his many publications including "Aashnayian Kia Kia" and "Kal Kothri" and regular columns in the newspapers have contributed to readers' understanding of progressive movement, labour movement and freedom of expression in Pakistan.
They said, a prolific writer and a committed leftist intellectual, Akhtar endured financial hardships, imprisonment, solitary confinement and forced unemployment in his lifetime as he struggled for fundamental social, cultural and political changes for the betterment of weak, oppressed working classes and peasants in a country which is ruled by feudalists, civil and military bureaucracy supported by religious and rightist parties.
In 1988, he published Ahwaal-e-Dostan, a collection of pen sketches of some famous people he was closely associated with such as Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Sajjad Zaheer, Hafeez Jalandhari, Ismat Chughtai, Sahir Ludhianvi, Patras Bokhari, Saadat Hassan Manto, Ali Sardar Jafri, Kaifi Azmi, Krishan Chandar and Jan Nisar Akhtar, to name but a few. His columns in various newspapers on social, intellectual, financial , political and culture issues were well received by his readers.
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