Revolutionary Poet Habib Jalib remembered on 23rd death anniversary

LAHORE: The 23rd death anniversary of revolutionary poet Habib Jalib was marked on Saturday.

Jalib, a progressive writer became the voice against then dictators; General Ayub Khan and General Ziaul Haq

When Ayub Khan enforced the 1962 constitution Jalib wrote perhaps his best known work.

دیپ جس کا محلات ہی میں جلے

چند لوگوں کی خوشیوں کو لے کر چلے

وہ جو سائے میں ہر مصلحت کے پلے

ایسے دستور کو، صبح بے نور کو

میں نہیں مانتا، میں نہیں مانتا

He wrote in the language of the common man, and perhaps that is why his message was understood by all social classes. The conviction behind his words and his emotional recitals would move crowds to tears.

Jalib was born as Habib Ahmed on March 24, 1928 in Hoshiarpur village. He migrated to Pakistan after partition and worked as a proofreader for an Urdu daily, Daily Imroze in Karachi.

When he died in 1993 his family refused to accept the government’s offer of bearing funeral expenses.

Jalib’s family has often complained of government apathy; they claim they started receiving the royalty for his book 20 years after his death.

  “There is not a single road, library or hospital in Punjab named after him,” his daughter Tahira said, reported a newspaper.