A Farewell to Hameed Akhter

Hameed Akhtar, the eminent progressive writer, journalist, film director and the recipient of Presidential Pride of Performance, passed away in Lahore in October 2011. He died of cancer after prolonged illness at the age
of 87. He is survived with three daughters, including TV artist Saba Pervaiz and a son.

To commemorate Hameed Akhtar’s sixty years of contribution in literature, journalism and progressive struggle, Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) is organizing a special event ‘A Farewell to Hameed Akhtar’
on Monday, 28^th November 2011 in Islamabad . Renowned Journalist, intellectual and Activist I.A. Rehman, Progressive Writer Critic and Chairman, National Language Authority Dr Anwar Ahmed, writer and Intellectual, Mr Ashfaq Saleem Mirza, and Dr
Rawish Naveed would speak on the occasion among many others.

Hameed Akhter was born in Ludhyana , India . During school time, he ran into future literary figures Sahir Ludhianvi and Ibn-e-Insha who were his school fellows at that time. Drawn to communist ideals from an early age,
Akhtar joined the Taraqi Pasand Tehreek – a socialist movement, in 1935 in what would be the beginning of a lifelong commitment to left-wing thought. He was secretary of the Bombay chapter of the Progressive Writers Association as early as 1946-47 and was
unanimously elected the secretary-general when the association was revived in Pakistan some time ago. Hameed Akhtar’s association with left-wing politics repeatedly landed him into trouble with the authorities. He was jailed many times and his book Kaal Kothri
was a memento of his time in jail.

He started his journalism career by joining Imroz in 1948 and went on to edit the paper, originally a Progressive Papers Limited (PPL) venture which was taken over by the Ayub Khan government in the late 1950s. In 1970,
he co-founded the daily Azad along with Abdullah Malik and I.A. Rehman.

He used to work as a scriptwriter in Bombay for some time and also tried his hand at film production after partition in Pakistan . The film ‘Sukh ka Sapna’ was a culmination of his desire to communicate his ideas of change
through the popular medium of film. But it was journalism and his association with progressive leftist movements that won him more recognition and respect.

There are eight books to his credit, including ‘Aashnayian Kia Kia’, “Royedad-e-Anjamanand’ and ‘Kal Kothri’. He had a close affiliation with key progressive writers and leftists of subcontinent, such as Faiz Ahmed Faiz,
Sajjad Zaheer, Hafeez Jalandhari, Ismat Chughtai, Sahir Ludhianvi, Patras Bokhari, Saadat Hassan Manto, Ali Sardar Jafri, Kaifi Azmi, Krishan Chandar and Jan Nisar Akhtarand many others.

Hameed Akhtar worked throughout his life to promote enlightenment in a country that descended deeper and deeper into obscurantism. He was among the few who continued, through his columns, to speak out against a blind orthodoxy
and its obscurantism that tore apart the tolerance the country had once known, against other powerful forces in society and the state that held back change and acted to oppress the people.  During his last days he was associated with a leading newspaper as
a columnist.

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Posted by Fayyaz Yaseen on Nov 25 2011. Filed under Latest News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry