In fond memory: Abdul Wahid Arisar remembered at book launch

HYDERABAD:

Literary scholars and politicians paid tribute to the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz leader, Abdul Wahid Arisar, who died on May 3, at the launching ceremony of his last book 'Thar Jo Manhoon' [Man from Thar] on Sunday evening.

The event was organised at the Sindhi Language Authority (SLA), the Sindh culture department's organisation responsible for publishing books in the Sindhi language. Former secretary of the SLA and writer, Taj Joyo, said Arisar began publishing political pamphlets and a magazine named 'Pegham' when he was a prayer leader at a mosque in the early 1970s.



Historian Abdul Haee Palijo said the Baloch leader Ghaus Bux Bizenjo was a witness to the fact that the late GM Syed, whose nationalist party was divided into over a dozen factions, declared Arisar heir to his political legacy on his hospital bed.

Mir Alam Mari, leader of Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz, traced the origin of Arisar's politics to his literary criticism of the one-unit system imposed during Ayub Khan's government. "By nature, he was a man of letters. His writings spoke of the lives of the common people of Sindh and the metaphors [he used] depicted the land of Sindh as [a] mother."

The speakers urged for the republication of all of Arisar's books, which also include translations and a biography of Syed. Literature, history and romance are the prominent features of his works.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th, 2015.