To k na waqif-e-Adab-e-gulami hai abhee
raqs zanjeer pahin kar bhee kia jata hai

Aaj qatil ki yeh marzi hai k sirkash larki
sir-e-qatil tujhay koroon se nachaya jay
moot ka raqs zamanay ko dikhaya jay
is tarahan zulm ko nazarana dia jata hai
raqs zanjeer pahin kar bhee kia jata hai

daikh fariyad na kar ,sir na jhuka paoon utha
kal k Jo log karain gay to abhee se kar ja
nachtay nachtay aazadi ki khatir mar ja
manzil-e-ishq main mar mar k jiya jata hai
raqs zanjeer pahin kar bhee kia jata hai

Story behind the poem:

Khurshid sahib is also a witness to the event that made Jalib sahib write one of his eternal songs. Khurshid sahib, along with Habib Jalib and Riaz Shahid, went to see film star Neelo who was hospitalised after she attempted suicide. She ate sleeping pills in a large quantity because the notorious Nawab of Kalabagh, who was at that time governor of West Pakistan, had asked Neelo to dance before a foreign dignitary which she refused. Consequently, the governor sent his armed men and got her abducted. She was literally dragged to the governor’s residence in a humiliating manner and then forced to dance. When Riaz Shahid listened to her story, Khurshid sahib narrates, he became emotional and said that he would restore her honour by marrying her with dignity. Riaz Shahid was a well-educated and trained film director and had a reputation of making films with a political message. As Jalib sahib was overwhelmed by the goodness of Riaz Shahid, he wrote “tu ke na’waqif-e-aadab-e-ghulami hai abhi / raqs zanjeer pehan kar bhi kya jata hai” which was later included in the film “Zarqa” directed by Riaz Shahid with a slight modification in its lines. Here, one should remember that Habib Jalib was a strong proponent of secularism and women and minorities’ rights in an era when talking about these things in public involved a great risk.

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More about Nawab of Kala Bagh

Sheik Manzoor Ilahi was commissioner Bahawalpur when Nawab of Bahawalpur was alive and Nawab of Kalabagh was the Governor.
Sheik Manzoor Ilahi writes: I was going to attend Commissioners’ Conference in Lahore when the Nawab of Bahawalpur sent for me and asked to convey to the Governor that the agricultural reforms should not be imposed upon Abbasi family in his life because he knows better how to look after the interests of his protégé. I got the chance to approach the Governor in a dinner hoisted by him at the end of the conference. Nawab of Kalabagh was sitting sandwiched between American Council General and the British Deputy High Commissioner when I overheard the Governor telling them, “I have told Mr. President so many times that no kind of democracy is feasible in this country.”


Ahan, so the Governor was opposed to the democracy which President Ayub Khan was about to give to the masses through 1962 constitution. When I gave him the message of the Nawab of Bahawalpur, the Governor spontaneously said, “Please tell Nawab Sahib to leave the issue alone.


Children are never thankful what ever the parents do for them.” I was surprised.


Now one knows what destiny has in store for any one. Nature was speaking through the mouth of the Governor it seems (The Governor was murdered by his son.)


Nawab of Kalabagh | Pakistan Politics & Current Affairs | Chowrangi