Story of a Pakistani communist
In a scenario where there is no archival record of the left, either in the form of official statements/documents or memoirs (Dada Amir Haider Khan’s biography being an exception), how can one evaluate our common progressive past politics? This is where the value of this book lies.
When someone changes his position, we treat him as a zandiq (heretic). So Jamal is another zandiq among reds.
Ironically, Jamal gave his whole life and career to progressive thoughts and spent many years in prison but when he amended his thoughts, he was discarded.
However, among the names mentioned Jamal has missed the significant name of Eric Rahim of Lyallpur who along with Hassan Nisar (maternal grandson of Nawab Mohsin Ul Mulk) played an important role in establishing DSF in Karachi.
In his book Jamal has criticised Mir Thebo, Imtiaz Alam and Shamim Ashraf Malik. He says that Major Ishaq had also joined CPP in late 1970s which was never the case. He was a leader of Mazdoor Kisan Party.
He has written about the expulsion of personalities like Comrade Tufail Abbas, Minhaj Barna and Hussain Naqi from the CPP in its formative years — late 1950s and early 1960s — but fails to evaluate the impact of such mistakes even in 2014.
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