Proemistics of Commitment in Aatir's Straggling through Fire

122 Pages·2023·0.851 MB·English

by  Amna Iqbal

For
My Students
Index

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Political Context and Cultural History
9

Chapter 2
Aatir: Person and Proemist
An Interview with Ghulam Murtaza Aatir
17

CHAPTER 3
Development of Pakistani Poetry
Thematic and Stylistic Concerns
36
CHAPTER 4
Aatir’s Proemistic Imagination in
Straggling through Fire
66

CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION
109

REFERENCES
112
9
CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION
Political Context and Cultural History

Pakistan inherited socio-political and cultural problems
at the time of independence intensified by economic issues: she
got only 2.6% of factory workers and 3.6% of total industries in
Subcontinent (Keddie, 2014, p.575). The division of
Subcontinent resulted in thirteen million voluntary and
involuntary migrants (Haque (1995, p. 186): almost all the
migrant streams evolved involuntarily but through 1951-1961
the migration streams were marked by a blend of involuntary and
voluntary migration (p.189). After the demise of Quaid-e-Azam
Muhammad Ali Jinnah in 1948, Liaquat Ali Khan became the
first Prime Minister of Pakistan. Khan’s murder in 1951 left
ineradicable marks on the state. Despite Muslim majority,
Pakistan had to struggle to define its national identity and exert
extra effort to establish political structure for its dialectically and
linguistically diverse public. Linguistic diversity and regional
10
tensions caused successive failures in constitutional
development.
Hegemonic army, corrupt politicians and bankrupt
economic system led it to poverty and extremism. In 1971
following the civil war, Eastern wing appeared as Bangladesh, a
separate independent state (Haque, 1995, p. 186). Pakistan relied
on public services and military forces to establish progression of
government. Political and military rulers were more interested in
personal gains and political power than fair administration and
socio-economic justice. Constitution formation and general
elections were postponed due to disputes over the role of
religion, national language, and the distribution of power and
control between provinces and the center till Pakistan’s first
constitution was developed in 1956. In 1958 General
Mohammad Ayub Khan took over the government with
astonishing ease. He autocratically centralized the government
without any inconvenience of ministerial alliance.
1965 war mounted the regional dissatisfaction in East
and West Pakistan which helped to weaken Ayub Khan’s control
and forced him to abdicate power in 1969. Afterwards Yahya
Khan led the second military government from 1969-1971 that
strengthened military tutelage and bureaucratic centralization
and fragmented local politics and society. 1970’s general
election is a manifestation of how social conflicts and
regionalism had overpowered politics and paved the way for the
11
separation of East wing of Pakistan in 1971. Provinces other than
Punjab got concessions in
1973 constitution to mete out political fairness to the
provinces. Pakistan People’s Party won the election of 1977 but
was blamed for electoral rigging. The violent metropolitan unrest
provided Zia-ul-Haq the pretext for military comeback in 1979
and constitution was put in abeyance. Bhutto was executed in
1979 and the remaining leadership of PPP was exiled or jailed.
Non-party elections and series of policies of Islamization helped
Zia validate the role of military in Pakistani politics. Zia’s rule
received international support because of Soviet invasion in
Afghanistan in 1979. Hudood Ordinance, Ushr and Zakat
ordinance, Federal Sharia Court and Law of Evidence were main
parts of Zia’s Islamization policy (Rizvi, 2000, pp. 171-173). His
military dictatorship of eleven years sabotaged regionalism and
political warp and woof of the country through religious
majoritarianism.
In 1984 MQM was established as a representative party
of Muhajirs in Karachi, basically a reaction against sub-
nationalisms which surrounded Pakistan’s political system.
Challenging regionalism, it attempted to secure the identity for
those who sacrificed their everything for Pakistan to negotiate
the faults of geographically bound narratives of Pakistan (Jalal,
1995, pp. 83-84). Its sudden rise is a case study of
multiculturalism and ethnic mobilization in Pakistan. MQM
claimed that Muhajirs constitute the fifth nationality of Pakistan.