Award from ‘anti-art’ state? No, thanks. Poet Ashu Lal refuses Pakistan’s top literary prize
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Award from ‘anti-art’ state? No, thanks. Poet Ashu Lal refuses Pakistan’s top literary prize

Poet Ashu Lal says Pakistan Academy of Letters’ top literary award is 'politically motivated'. But his affiliation with opposition PPP is well known.

   
Ashu Lal in an event. | Photo Credit: Twitter/@PPPCulturalWeng

Ashu Lal in an event. | Photo Credit: Twitter/@PPPCulturalWeng

New Delhi: As celebrities and public figures came out in support of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan ahead of the no-confidence motion, the country’s literary world has a different story — they’re calling the State “anti-people” and “anti-art”. Stalwart poet, author and Saraiki activist Ashu Lal is the latest to say so. And just to rubber-stamp his opinion, has gone the other way by refusing to accept the Pakistan Academy of Letters’ top literary award Kamal-e-Fun — the ‘wonderful art’ — and with it, a million Pakistani rupees.

Soon after the Pakistan Academy of Letters committee named him for this year’s Kamal-e-Fun aside from travel writer Mustansar Hussain Tarar and Ashoo Lala Faqeer, Lal explicitly said he wanted no part in the ceremony, and claimed to have never submitted anything to the academy for consideration. “My personal opinion is that my refusal is more valueable [sic]. Since last 40 years, My literary activism is my award and honour ……Do not want to live in brackets,” Ashu Lal tweeted on Thursday.


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Pakistan’s ‘deep state’ and ‘fascist regime’

The poet elaborated on his position in an interview with Irfan Aslam of Dawn, describing the award as “politically motivated” hitting out at Pakistan’s “deep state” for sidelining and othering issues that affect indigenous groups. “The deep state is oppressing the natives, our resources and our culture. Our children go missing under the fascist regime. The natives are ignored badly. How can we accept the award from an anti-people and anti-art state?” Ashu Lal said.

These ‘native’ groups include the Saraiki-speaking people from southern Punjab, the community to which Lal belongs and has built a career advocating for. However, he has since extended aid to other indigenous groups across Pakistan as well.

“I am working with the native people. We arrange poetry sitting and cultural events and get connected to our land and share our thoughts about it. That’s our way to resistance. The fishermen in river Sindh are struggling to survive. Water crisis is a big issue in the whole world but here it is ignored,” he added.

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Chairperson Hina Jilani had on 6 March said that the challenges faced by those in the Saraiki region are “10 times worse” than in the rest of the country, with the group being “denied fundamental rights by feudal lords”


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Affiliation with Pakistan Peoples Party

An MBBS graduate from Quaid-e-Azam Medical College in Bahawalpur in the Punjab province of Pakistan, Ashu Lal is a retired doctor who has been running a free treatment clinic at Karor Lal Esan tehsil of Layyah district for the poor.

Having written extensive works of poetry and short stories in Saraiki and Urdu, the 62-year-old Lal is one among several voices in Pakistan who have raised the issue of indigenous peoples’ welfare and lack of access to basic resources.

Ashu Lal, however, also works as the president of ‘People’s Cultural Wing Seraiki Waseeb’ — an organisation affiliated with the Bilawal Bhutto Zardari-led Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). He has been open about his affiliation with the Opposition party.

“Civilized world is watching towards [sic] the face of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in Pakistan,” he recently posted on Instagram.

Earlier this year, Ashu Lal also ‘paid homage’ to ‘Quaid-e-Awam’ (the great leader), ‘shaheed’ Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto on his birthday in a video message posted on Twitter.


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A recent history of prize refusal

Ashu Lal isn’t the first poet to disavow a major literary award in Pakistan. Baloch writer Akbar Barakzai had rejected a “Syed Zahoor Shah Hashmi Award in the field of prose” in June 2020 for his book Zaban Zanti – Balochi Zaban Zanti because of “the policies imposed by the government on Balochistan which has kept the people subjugated.”

Veerta Ali, daughter of poet Fehmida Riaz — a feminist activist who lived in exile in India during General Zia-ul-Haq’s rule — had also rejected Pakistan’s presidential award ‘Tamgha-i-Imtiaz’, posthumously awarded to her mother in September 2020. According to The Balochistan Post, Ali said: “If my mother was alive today, she would have protested against these rights violations through her writings. I shall also be ashamed to receive an award in the current atmosphere of repression.”