Hasan Mujtaba
\nMohammed Ziaul Haq\u2019s military rule was doubtless the worst totalitarian regime in our country\u2019s history.Surprisingly, however, fields such as literature, poetry, film, television and the theatre had quite a lot of space and freedom to work in. Was this space unintentional or by design?
\nAs fiction writer and playwright Abdul Qadir Junejo once put it, \u201cwriting under martial law is like holding a pen in one hand, and wearing a handcuff in the other.\u201d
\nMany believed Zia allowed the arts to flourish because they would keep people busy and prevent them from protesting against his rule.
\nThe theorist of this Franz Fanon \u2014 esque belief did not absolve even Junejo or Noorul Huda Shah \u2014 whose TV serials and plays like \u2018Deewarain\u2019 and \u2018Jungle\u2019 were considered blockbusters of their time \u2014 from working in tandem with Zia.
\nFor conspiracy theorists, the plays were meant to distract people from participating in the movement to restore democracy.
\nOther than \u2018Deewarain\u2019 or \u2018Jungle\u2019, a plethora of screen plays emerged under Zia\u2019s rule. Be it Amjad Islam Amjad\u2019s epic serial\u2018Waris\u2019\u00a0about the decaying feudal values of Punjab, or \u2018Sona Chandi\u2019 of Munoo Bhai, there was much to see on television.
\nEven PTV\u2019s annual award distribution ceremony turned into Pakistan\u2019s version of the Academy Awards.
\nThe political minds cum TV watchers would look for the \u2018party line\u2019 in the dialogues of these dramas and shows. The class struggle, the movement for the restoration of democracy, and Bhutto\u2019s trial, execution, and aftermath were all decoded.
\n\u201cWe are going live tonight from the Fort while no one has ever returned from the\u00a0Killa\u00a0(the fort) alive\u201d, were the opening remarks of satirist, actor and writer Anwar Maqsood while compeering the annual PTV awards ceremony which was being broadcast live from Lahore Fort.
\nThe Lahore Fort is infamous for having dungeons cells which held political prisoners who were tortured, in many cases, even to death.
\nOh the Fort of Lahore,
\nAnother of your prisoners died,
\nQuietened the noise of prison,
\nFeet chained in the fetters stopped
\nThe poet Habib Jalib penned this many years before Zia\u2019s rule. In reality, film, theatre and dance were brought to a state of coma in Pakistan under Zia. This was merely the beginning of the end of the fine arts in Pakistan. Doyen of Urdu literature, Intezar Hussein has written in his memoirs\u00a0chiraghon ka dhanvan\u00a0that sometimes Zia would himself watch the films as part of the censoring board. The other members of the film censor board included poet and writer Kishwar Naheed and Islamist novelist Nasim Hijazi.
\nThe songs that became popular during this time were politically charged songs such as\u00a0Bija Teer Bija and jiye Bhutto Benazir. Jiye Jiye.
\nVery few people are familiar with the anecdote of a\u00a0Mehndiceremony at the wedding of an army generals\u2019 daughter (married to my friend)at Islamabad where the\u00a0\u2018jiye Bhutto Banazir\u2019 song was played and would only be stopped when Begum Shafiqa Ziaul Haq joined the ceremony.
\nZia had already passed away by then. Theatre groups such as Talat Hussein and Rahat Kazmi\u2019s \u2018Theatre Group\u2019 and \u2018Ajoka\u2019 and the group Dastak under Aslam Azhar, amongst others, were the most active during Zia\u2019s tenure.
\nAlthough the Zia regime severely oppressed the media, some English language dailies such as\u00a0The Muslim\u00a0and\u00a0The Frontier Postwere allowed to function. This is nothing short of a miracle and why this was allowed to happen continues to remain a mystery. The advent of vibrant and liberal English print media which employed pro democracy, secular and independent minded journalists and staff changed the course of the print media\u2019s history in the country.
\nPoetry was another field which flourished.\u00a0Mushairas\u00a0were held in memory of Allama Iqbal under the auspices of the Allama Iqbal Memorial Committee in various parts of the country. Prominent progressive poets like Ali Sardar Jafri, and even Ahmed Faraz and Habib Jalib recited their poems. In most cases, Habib Jalib and Ahmed Faraz were removed and expelled from the districts.
\n\u201cOn every round of five lashes, the doctor inspects the pulse and declares the prisoner healthy and gives the go ahead to the executioner to complete the punishment of fifteen lashes. Is this humanity?\u201d wondered Sindhi fiction writer Muneer Ahmed Manik in his novella \u2018Saah Muthaa Mein\u2019 (\u2018living in fear\u2019)
\nIn reality, the space Zia gave to the people of Pakistan and to the fine arts was the space between the doctor and the executioner. The space for us to breathe our last.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hasan Mujtaba Mohammed Ziaul Haq\u2019s military rule was doubtless the worst totalitarian regime in our country\u2019s history.Surprisingly, however, fields such as literature, poetry, film, television and the theatre had quite a lot of space and freedom to work in. Was this space unintentional or by design? As fiction writer and playwright Abdul Qadir Junejo once […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19666","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-article"},"yoast_head":"\n