Zafaryab was a wild desert flower trying to adjust to the life of an indoor plant. Wild flowers cannot adjust to room temperatures, they cannot survive as pet plants and are destined to wither away too soon. It always appeared as if he was trying to escape social suffocation

The story of Zafaryab is a “chronicle of a life foretold”. Anyone could see that the ‘free bird’ would take a torturous path, trying to break out of an iron cage. Hearing about his death, recently, the first question that came to mind was how he managed to survive for 53 years; for ordinary mortals this may be very young but not so for Zafaryab. Knowing Zafaryab, one can say that going on for 53 years — without making opportunist compromises — was a great achievement.

Zafaryab’s character belonged in the fictional world of Krishan Chander, Bedi or Manto. One can feel him in the environs of Krishan Chandar’s Teen Goonday (Three Rascals) and as the Bashan Singh of Toba Tek Singh. One can even see him as Dostovysky’s Idiot, who wanted to help everyone but ended up hurting some... this was Zafaryab.

He was a character only a great artist could have created. Only, in his case, the character existed in the real world rather than fiction. That is what made the story even more grim.

When I first met Zafaryab, back in the early 1970s, he was a vigorous young man. Short tempered and easily provoked into fights, he was a wild desert flower trying to adjust to the life of an indoor plant. Wild flowers cannot adjust to room temperatures, they cannot survive as pet plants and are destined to wither away too soon.

It always appeared as if he was trying to escape social suffocation. In this effort, he appeared at times to be crude and abusive — a bit like Krishan Chandar’s kind-hearted ‘goondas’.

Zafaryab’s defiance of society expressed itself through political activism. Contrary to his seemingly anarchic tendencies, he was a dedicated worker of the Nationalist Student Organisation (NSO) — the left wing student organisation that many of us joined. Zafaryab quickly gained prominence and contested the Punjab University elections. He lost the election but never his spirit.

It was not easy being a left-wing student leader even in those days even if the entire country leant towards progressivism. In the educational institutions, a tiny left was pitted against a well-organised Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) and its student wing, the Islami Jamiat-i-Talaba (IJT).

Unlike other political parties, including the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the JI considered the Punjab University its fiefdom, its laboratory for bringing about a revolution and for grooming its leadership. Uprisings in the Punjab University and other educational institutions were used as leverage against the PPP government to have JI’s demands accepted elsewhere. The small band of leftist students faced a mammoth well-oiled party machine.

Zafaryab had the courage and tenacity to withstand the harassing and beatings by political opponents. The NSO survived for many years not due to aid from any communist country but because of people like Zafaryab, who supported the organisation from their meagre personal resources. The departure of many progressive minded people, including Zafaryab left the Punjab University in doldrums; it was never again considered the prime educational institution of Pakistan.

The weakening of the NSO and the left in general was excruciating for Zafaryab and his friends. It triggered the process of self-destruction: budding flowers started wilting away. Given the bleak environment, Zafaryab tried his best to live in his ideal world, whether it was in academia or the media. His idealism took him to Viewpoint and other enlightened publications. One can also not forget that he, along with Hussain Naqi, brought out the first Punjabi daily — Sajjan. They continued to support themselves by working elsewhere while giving their best to Sajjan.

Zafaryab’s last exile to the US and his academic venture there were a result of his opposition to child labour. He was accused of conspiring with India to undermine Pakistan’s position in the West. In the end he was allowed to leave for the US to receiving a prominent journalistic award. Friends have told me that Zafaryab donated the entire award money, $100,000, to the cause of ending child labour. Only Zafaryab, who was always in need of money, could be that generous.

It is ironic that the Benazir Bhutto government dispatched a delegation to “expose Zafaryab’s conspiracy” in Europe and the US. In Washington, I told the leader of the senatorial delegation that if he knew Zafaryab, he would have realised that Zafaryab was capable of conspiring against nobody except himself.

That is what Zafaryab did all his life: conspire against himself for social justice in the world.

Random musings: Zafaryab must be laughing at the irony of the US. A very critical book about the US, The Rogue State: A Guide to the World’s Only Superpower, has become one of the three best selling books on amazon.com. The fortunes of this book, written by William Blum, a former State Department official, have risen after Osama Bin Laden mentioned it as a ‘must read’ in his latest taped message.

The writer can be reached at manzurejaz@yahoo.com