Lahore, Pakistan: After a pause of over five years, Habib Jalib Mela has been proposed on 26 January 2025. The first meeting for the arrangement was held in the SAFMA head office.
The meeting was attended by 37 people including Imtiaz Alam, Farooq Tariq, Tahira Jalib, Sara Jalib, Comrade Hasnain, Faisal Shahzad, Raza Naeem, Ammar Shahzad, Amina Chaudhry, Muzammil Kakar, Abdullah Zia, Rafat Maqsood, Hur Abbas Naqvi, Haris Hashmi, Hasnain Asghar, Haider Butt, Mudabbar Ali, Imtiaz-ul-Haq, Muhammad Akbar, Niaz Khan, Muhammad Amin, Allama Siddique Azhar, Mirza Anwar Baig, Zeigham Abbas, Dr. Furqan, Muhammad Asghar, Muhammad Ijaz, Saman Zahira, Rana Owais and Hassan Munawar.
Participants appreciated the services of Habib Jalib and agreed to convey the message of Jalib’s resistance poetry to the younger generation in today’s circumstances. The committee members appreciated the proposal to hold Jalib Awami Mela in 2025 after 2019 and expressed their determination to hold Jalib Mela every year in the future. It was jointly agreed in the meeting that Habib Jalib is not a poet of any one class but a poet of all, therefore, all old and new colleagues will be included in the Jalib Mela Committee, some disgruntled friends will also be contacted and this left-wing tradition of holding a festival together will be continued.
On the suggestion of Imtiaz Alam, the name of Jalib Awami Mela was changed to Jalib Jamhoori Mela, which was agreed upon by all the participants.
The date of Jalib Jamhoori Mela was unanimously fixed in the meeting as 26 January 2025. While the venue/location of the festival has not been decided yet. Initially, the proposal to hold the festival at Bagh-e-Jinnah Open Air Theater and Cosmopolitan Club was considered. The open-air theatre is under construction, however, Comrade Hasnain was given the responsibility to get information about the open-air theatre and report it to the committee in the next meeting.
The target for the funds of Jalib Jamhuri Mela was set at Rs. 1.5 million. Initially, the members present in the meeting wrote down their own funds. Comrade Imtiaz Alam pledged Rs. 1 million, Comrade Tony Usman from Norway pledged Rs. 1 million, while Farooq Tariq pledged Rs. 50,000 for the festival. The entire report of the Finance Committee will be shared separately in the group, however, according to the promises made so far, promises of Rs. 309,000 and Rs. 500 have been taken, to meet the target of Rs. 1.5 million, we need another Rs. 1.1 million, Rs. 90,000 and Rs. 500.
It was decided in the meeting that the account of the Free Media Association would be used for the funds of Jalib Mela. This account will be shared with the funders, while a report of all the funds and expenses of the festival will be presented to the colleagues in every meeting.
The mobilization of Jalib Mela will be started along with the date of its launch. In this regard, the youth have been given the responsibility of organizing various events in the name of Jalib in educational institutions and also mobilizing Jalib Mela.
Initially, a social media poster of Jalib Jamhoori Mela and a pamphlet will be published in which the name of the place will not be written, but the campaign will be started.
Videos of Jalib Sahib’s speeches will also be made and shared on social media and Jalib Jamhoori Mela will be promoted.
Habib Jalib was on 24 March 1928 and died on 13 March 1993. He was a revolutionary poet and left-wing political activist who served most of his life in jails for opposing martial law, authoritarianism, military dictatorship, and state oppression.
The formation of committees for the arrangements of Jalib Mela will be given in the next meeting. The next meeting of the Jalib Mela Committee will be held on December 20 at 3 pm at SAFMA, Shadman.
