VIEW POINT: Controversial figure

Do you know who the following three personages were: Hafeez Jalandhari, Faiz Ahmad Faiz and Ashfaq Ahmed? "Of course", you're most likely to say, "Hafeez is the man who gave us our national anthem, and Faiz is revered across the political spectrum for his soul touching poetry." But Ashfaq, who? is the most likely reaction, especially if you are under thirty.
But Lahore's district administration has a different answer, which is why it has named a newly constructed underpass leading to Model Town - where all three lived and worked - after Ashfaq Ahmad. The Sharif brothers not only shared that residential neighbourhood with Ashfaq but also an ideological affinity. The idea to honour him rather than Faiz or Hafeez must have come from them.
True, Ashfaq was a famous short-story writer and playwright. Streets, roads and other public places, however, are named after people not only for their fame. That is done to honour public figures in recognition of their contributions to society. Faiz's pro-people poetry holds such power and universal appeal that it cuts across ideological lines. It can be heard even at the Jamaat-i-Islami's public meetings. Ashfaq, on the other hand, has always been a controversial figure. Indeed, he was an outstanding craftsman. But he used his craft to promote anti-rational and unscientific thinking. He also discouraged education, saying often times that Pakistan was made by uneducated people and weakened by the educated class.
His favourite solution for all problems was to accept suffering as fait accompli, or to seek the blessings of spiritual guides. The theme repeatedly figured in his popular PTV series "Eik Mohabbat Sau Afsaney" (hundred stories of one love). In one love story the protagonist, a young man from a well-to-do family, joins the Air Force to discover that he is going blind, and is discharged from service. Let's forget for now why the military's medical board- which thoroughly scrutinizes every recruit- failed to detect the eyesight problem. After he returns home, unlike any normal parent, his wealthy father makes no effort to secure the best possible treatment for his son, or in the event of failure to find him some productive activity. Instead the young man is allowed to go to the Data Darbar shrine to live there as a 'fakir' selling glass bangles unbeknown to the love of his life. At the climax, she comes to buy the bangles; and while putting them on, he recognises her from her hands. Does any of this make sense? Yes, because the writer had to prove that rationality counts for nothing. In another episode a big city man suffers from a serious disease that cannot be cured by well-qualified health professions. He then finds a 'holy man' holding court in the middle of nowhere, who blesses him with some mumbo jumbo which acts as a miracle cure. The idea being implanted in both episodes is that never look for logical solutions to your problems. Be content, and make no effort to change your condition. Status quo must be preserved and protected.
As General Ziaul Haq's protégé, Ashfaq Ahmad happily served the military dictator's agenda of political suppression at home and playing the US' mercenary partner in that country's war in Afghanistan against its erstwhile rival, the Soviet Union, through Afghan and Arab fighters-then affectionately called the Mujahedeen. Hence came a bizarre teleplay featuring a married Christian woman working in an office, where her Muslim boss pays her extraordinary attention. When she calls in sick he goes to her home to see if he could do anything to help, which makes her husband to question the boss's intentions, and abandon the wife. Exasperated over what happened, she asks the boss why he acted the way he did, and gets an unbelievable answer. The Christian king of Abyssinia, he tells her, gave refuge to Muslims escaping from Quraish's persecution (during 614-615 CE) in Makkah. He was only returning that act of kindness to Christians through her! Message of the story: Muslims must help Christian America in its war against the Red infidels.
It is no accident that not a single public place has been named after Faiz - the most celebrated poet of our time. Foreign names that fit into the ruling elite's idea of cultural identity are galore. One of the busiest roads in Karachi, for instance, is called Shara-e-Faisal to honour a deceased Saudi ruler; another in Lahore, Shara-e-Jalaluddin Rumi, celebrates 13th century Persian Sufi mystic; yet another, Shahra-e-Bin Badees, is named after a Muslim intellectual who led Islamic Reform Movement in Algeria. The names though never caught on because of the insistence to use the cumbersome prefix of 'Shahra-e'. Simplification as Jalaluddin Rumi Sarak or Bin Badees Sarak would be more practical. People have easily gotten used to calling Lyallpur as Faisalabad (again, after the same Saudi monarch) and Montgomery as Sahiwal, simply because they are easy to say.
We need to first give respect and recognition to local heroes, writers and Sufi poets. Unfortunately, in Lahore the move to name a square for a great Punjabi revolutionary, Bhagat Singh, continues to face resistance. Those trying to stop it say the place has already been named after Chaudhary Rehmat Ali, an independence movement leader credited with thinking up the name Pakistan. Unless the resistance is rooted in religion related issues (Bhagat Singh was a Sikh by birth and Marxist by choice) there is no reason why a compromise solution cannot be found. The spot in Shadman is associated with Baghat Singh because that was the location of a jail where he was tried and hanged by the British colonials. There are many other bigger and better 'chauks' in the city, such as the Liberty Chauk and Minimarket Chauk, which could be more appropriate for commemorating Rehmat Ali's services. Let's also acknowledge who we are, and honour one of our own for sacrificing his life for a better future for all.
As for the Model Town underpass, it would be useful if the city authorities, or whosoever is responsible for the blunder, explains what was the criterion used for selecting Ashfaq Ahmad for the honour. What makes him get precedence over Faiz? More importantly, given the deeply controversial nature of the person's work, the place must be renamed.
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